Un de fait

Until the Sun Explodes - It was finally here. Considering that I had blocked the time on my work calendar weeks in advance and had been dreaming about this moment for well over a year, it seemed a bit surreal but the moment was indeed finally here. It was only a 14 percent chance that this inimitable moment would summon a version of the future that I desperately wanted to experience but for some reason, as I stepped away from my work tasks at my desk in my home office and walked into the living room to turn on the television, it felt more likely than not that it would. Call it a premonition, call it blind optimism, or just call it a confidence in my ability to will this thing into existence; whatever you want to call it, I had this calming sense that it was simply just meant to be. As I settled into the comfort of my couch, the blare of the broadcast melted into the background. It was overshadowed by the rhythm of my breathing and the melodic harmony of my actualization mindfulness mantra. Inhale. Exhale. Row, row, row your boat.

Nevertheless, as the countdown began, I was nervous. Of course I was nervous. How could you not be with so much at stake? The difference between finishing first and finishing anything less than first in this contest that was about to unfold on my television screen was on the magnitude of the difference between hitting the jackpot and winning $400,000,000 in the Powerball lottery and almost hitting the jackpot and winning $80,000 in the Powerball lottery. Sure, finishing anything less than first would deliver a perfectly adequate consolation prize. But finishing first? That would deliver a jackpot so rare, it would change everything for the splendidly magnificent better, forever.

The contest started out as expected: New Orleans, Toronto, Dallas, Orlando. Deep breaths. Inhale. Exhale. Any surprises this early in the contest could foreshadow catastrophe so the proceedings going chalk so far as was one small relief after another playing out as sweet music to my ears. Oklahoma City, Utah, Indiana, Washington. Deep breaths. Inhale. Chalk. Exhale. Chalk. Inhale. Chalk. Exhale. Chalk. Order in the universe. Everything in its natural place. Rhythm and harmony. Inhale. Exhale. Gently down the stream.

Orlando, Detroit…hold up, WHAT? That’s not chalk. That’s not order in the universe. That’s not everything in its natural place. That’s neither rhythmic nor harmonious. That is a seismic disruption of epic proportion. But thankfully, not one resulting in calamity for me. In fact, processing the information in my head as quickly as an M2 Ultra chip, I instantly realized that the Motor City being announced at this point in the sequence was actually spectacularly good news for me. It was confirmation that the probability of my desired result had just increased from a 14 percent chance to a 25 percent chance.

The broadcast on my television cut to a commercial break. In my excitement I felt a burst of kinetic energy compelling me to want to jump up off of the couch and start pacing around my living room. I felt like bouncing off the walls to pass the time until the broadcast resumed but fortunately, I had the prudence to realize that this burst of energy was being generated by the verisimilitude of bliss, not bliss itself. This thing was far from actualized. Being keenly aware now of the uncertainly that still loomed, I resisted the temptation to leap up and instead turned inward, remaining mindful and focused on my rhythmic breathing and my melodic mantra. Inhale. Commercial. Exhale. Commercial. Inhale. Commercial. Exhale. Commercial. Inhale. Exhale. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily.

My breathing and comportment fully regulated coming out of the commercial break, I braced myself for the next announcement in the proceedings. Houston. Inhale. Space City may have a problem but I certainly don’t. 33 percent chance. Exhale. Is this really going to happen? I’m not going to lie. At this point, doubt started to claw its way into my thoughts. Could it actually be that I will get this close to seeing this dream come to fruition just to have the rug pulled out at the last moment? I could feel anxiety and nerves starting to overpower mindfulness and confidence. Inhale-exhale-inhale-exhale-inhale-exhale. Portland. Inhale-exhale-inhale-exhale-inhale-exhale. 50 percent chance. In-ex-in-ex-in-ex. Feeling on the verge of a full blown panic attack as I braced myself for the next announcement in the proceedings, I somehow fortuitously garnered the self-awareness to dig deep internally and summon back my mantra so I could reconnect to my melodic harmony and take one more deep breath. INHALE.

Charlotte. EXHALE. “And that means that the number one pick in the 2023 NBA draft goes to the San Antonio Spurs.” I was stunned. Victor Wembanyama, the greatest basketball prospect in the history of the planet, was going to be drafted by my favorite team in 37 days. Call it a premonition, call it blind optimism, or just call it a confidence in my ability to will this thing into existence; whatever you want to call it, call it reality. Also, maybe just call it luck? While attempting to process a moment actualized, I just sat there on the couch looking down and for whatever reason, the next thought that entered my mind was to notice what shirt I was wearing. It happened to be a maroon t-shirt of the bluegrass hip-hip fusion band, Gangstagrass that I had purchased at a live show they performed in Denver, CO in April of the year prior. I decided right there on the spot that this was now and forevermore my lucky t-shirt. Funny the things we remember from those rarest of rare most special moments. Inhale. Exhale. Life is but a dream.

* * *

On Sunday, April 19th, 19,372 teal, pink, and orange-robed blessed souls congregated at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, TX to bare direct witness to the playoff birth of a savior and also the first contact event in an alien invasion that could possibly conclude this June with the abduction of a former United States Postmaster General named Larry O’Brien. On the same day that he was announced as a finalist for the NBA Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year awards, 22-year-old basketball prodigy Victor Wembanyama had 35 points, five rebounds, two blocks, and one assist in his playoff debut. The player of the game shot 13-21 from the field (a cold-blooded 5-6 from deep) and 4-5 from the free throw line in 33 minutes of action leading the San Antonio Spurs to a 111-98 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 1 of our NBA Western Conference First Round match up. Oh, and that aforementioned Defensive Player of the Year award? A mere 24 hours after Wemby was announced as a finalist, the NBA turned around and made the least suspenseful result on the NBA Awards ballot official. Yesterday, Victor was named the 2025-26 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year, becoming the youngest and first unanimous winner of the award.

It seems mind boggling when laid out in these terms, but this was the first playoff win for the San Antonio Spurs in 2,551 days. And man, was the city of San Antonio turnt up for it. ¡Viva la fiesta!Not just the city, but an entire wing of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, as well. It was so heartwarming to see Spurs legends David Robinson and Tim Duncan sitting together supporting the next generation of dynastic-level talent as they stepped into the breach. Not just the San Antonio’s two number one (overall) draft picks to precede Wembanyama in carrying the franchise on their backs but to also see Manu Ginobili, maybe the most beloved Spur of them all, and Gregg Popovich, the winningest coach in NBA history, back in an arena where they routinely hung banners to root on the raising of the next one. (Side note: not only had it been 2,551 days on Sunday since the #BlackAndSilver had last won a playoff game, but it’s now consequently also been 1,796 days since I last wrote a blog post in this series. We have so much to catch up on and over the next several weeks, I intend to do exactly that including reflecting on Coach Pop’s abrupt retirement.)

It’s a completely oversaturated cliché in sports to call a team a “family” but if ever there were a professional sports franchise to use the term and not have it feel cliché, the San Antonio Spurs are that franchise. Case in point, one of the coolest things about Sunday night (besides the enormity of seeing the legends who were in the building to bare witness to the alien invasion) was the team building activity arranged by backup power forward, Kelly Olynyk. Kelly generously gifted the entire 18-man roster matching custom suits to wear pre-game as they entered the building for their first playoff run together. One of the things that makes this 62-win Spurs squad so special is their chemistry; how much they enjoy being around one another and celebrating one another’s success. I can’t wait to see that on full display once again tonight in Titletown, TX where, in describing the brand of basketball the next generation of one of basketball’s most storied franchises is playing right now, #SpursFamily isn’t cliché, it’s apt.

#GoSpursGo

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Headline Image Source: Sole Retriever

Four Starboard

Like a Rolling Stone - It was a different world, it was another life. Perhaps, in a cruelly poetic way, this was the bridge from the stability of a world that had sustained for decades to the chaos of a new world that awaited on the horizon just past the point of visibility. The San Antonio Spurs fought nobly to hang on to that past stability, to the order of a world that for Lonnie Walker IV, the Spurs youngest player, was the only world he had ever known. When Patty Mills aggressively advanced an outlet pass to a streaking Bryn Forbes for a dunk that cut the Denver Nuggets' lead to two points (88-86) with 52.2 seconds remaining in Game 7, having clawed our way back from an abysmal 13 point first quarter performance and a deficit that ballooned to 17 points in the third quarter, the continuation of stability and order was well within our reach. Full stop with one stop for a chance to advance to the Western Conference Semifinals for the 17th time in 21 seasons under Gregg Popovich. Could we get just one stop?  After a Nuggets timeout, we received our answer...unfortunately it was not the answer we had been hoping for and Jamal Murray, Denver's super-talented point guard, was more than happy to be the bearer of our bad news.  With 36.8 seconds remaining, Murray sank a 14-foot floater to extend the Nuggets' lead back up to four (90-86). Of course, as coldblooded and devastating as Murray's dagger was, all hope was not yet lost. In his first season headlining the post-Kawhi-defection-Spurs, DeMar DeRozan had had no issues putting the team on his back in clutch situations. Nothing was about to change during a First Round Game 7. Only eight seconds later, DeMar got to "his spot" deep in the paint and rose up for a shot to cut the lead to two with enough time left (28 seconds) for us to have the opportunity to play defense without fouling. Sadly, that opportunity never ultimately came to fruition as DeMar's shot was blocked by Torrey Craig, one of Denver's better wing-defenders. Nuggets superstar center Nikola Jokic recovered Craig's block shot giving possession back to Denver.  While the blocked shot was obviously devastating to the Spurs' chances of advancement, once again...all was not yet lost. Down four, the Spurs still had the opportunity to play the "foul game" and given the Nuggets' collective playoff inexperience coupled with the added pressure of an elimination game, it was reasonable to hope that Denver might miss free throws and help keep San Antonio's door open to make up the four point deficit in the final 25 seconds.  What happened next, though, was inexplicable. For some reason, the Spurs elected not to foul and allowed Denver to run the shot clock down under five seconds before Murray ultimately shot and missed. It seemed that Coach Pop was calling for the foul from the sidelines but our players on the court seemed to just have a collective mental meltdown by allowing the Nuggets to run the clock down. Even though Murray missed, it was too late by the time DeMar got the rebound given that we were still down four points. There was only one second left when DeRozan got control of the ball and realizing that it was over, he didn't even attempt a desperation shot before time ran out and San Antonio's season was over. On April 27th, 2019, the Denver Nuggets eliminated the San Antonio Spurs in seven games (4-3), winning the decisive game 90-86 at home at the Pepsi Center in Denver. Rudy Gay was the player of the game with 21 points and 8 rebounds off the bench. Without the veteran swingman's contributions throughout the game, the Spurs wouldn't have had the opportunity to be within striking distance to steal the series down the stretch.  Spurs teams past regularly came up with the stops necessary to advance in the playoffs. The 2018-19 Spurs didn't and in falling short, this group, despite their grit, finally allowed the bonds of our past to succumb under the weight of an offseason transaction that changed the trajectory of our future.  The new world was no longer just past the point of visibility on the horizon, the new world was here.

Fast forward 25 months and a lot has happened.  First (but not foremost), this, the Black & Silver post for the 2019 Western Conference First Round, Game 7, is brazenly pushing out the limits of what constitutes a timely game recap. If you are a regular reader of the blog series, it will probably not shock you to know that I'm unapologetically defiant (borderline gleeful) to be pushing those limits. After all, one of our guiding principles here at theLeftAhead is that time is an illusion. Of course, I wouldn't have had to push the limits out this much had an unfortunate incident of playing an uneven number of games during the pandemic resulted in the unlucky math that eliminated the Spurs from competing in the 2019-20 NBA Playoffs in The Bubble in Orlando, FL last fall and also ended San Antonio's record-breaking streak of 22 consecutive playoff appearances. Like I said, a lot has happened in the 25 months since the Spurs 2019 Game 7 defeat at the hands of the Nuggets. A new world indeed. Zoom forward a little bit more into this season and we find a couple of more examples of our beloved Spurs adjusting to the realities of this new era. The season started off on a very positive trajectory and there was hope that last season was just a blip (and not the new normal). There were positive indications that we were in position to establish our return to being a perennial postseason lock through much of the season with the team reaching a season-high mark of five games over .500 and holding the fifth-seed in the standings on Valentine's Day. Then, unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic reared its ugly head. We were never the same after losing five players to health and safety protocols in late February. To make matter worse, having had six games postponed due to protocols also meant that our schedule post-All-Star break was the most brutal in the league playing 40 games in 68 days without one instance of consecutive days off in the second half of the season. More tribulations came as the Spurs decided to buy out LaMarcus Aldridge (one of the last remaining links to the old world Spurs) on March 25th when we couldn't find a suitable trade partner before the deadline. I was happy to see LA sign with the Nets so he could have a chance to compete again for a title but then really bummed when he was abruptly forced to retire on April 15th due to a reoccurrence of his heart condition. (I enjoyed watching you go to work on the block in SA for six great years, LA. Amazing career. Health is more important than basketball so I wish you a long, healthy retirement.) As if we had not already endured enough adversity, we lost Derrick White to a season-ending ankle sprain at the end of April. All of this adversity resulted in the Spurs going from five games over .500 to six games below .500 and ending the season as the 10th seed entering the newly-created NBA Playoff Play-In Tournament. Tonight, we face a familiar division foe in the Memphis Grizzlies at the FedEx Forum. The Grizzlies hold the 9th seed in the play-in tournament so they get home court advantage for tonight's game. If we win tonight, we will get to play the loser of tonight's game between the 8th seed Golden State Warriors and the 7th seed Defending Champion Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. Win that game and we earn the 8th seed and get to face the Utah Jazz in the First Round of the playoffs. Quite a task in front of us but the good new is that there is no expectation for us two win two games in a row to "make the playoffs" so we might as well play loose and see what happens. In the end, we are officially in this new world of playing the underdog rather than being the perennial powerhouse and it's kind of exciting to be in this new position. There are advantages to our new world. Tonight is going to be a lot of fun. Nothing exemplifies the transition into a new era of Spurs basketball more than an event that took place this past Saturday (May 15th). If you're a reader of this blog and a Spurs plan, the aforementioned event need not be named (but I will share a video from it below). All I need to say is thank you ? thank you ? thank you ? thank you ? thank you ? Tim Duncan. And on that note, time to start preparing for the game tonight. Even as an underdog, we still have the winningest coach in NBA history in our corner (regular season and playoffs combined) so I like our chances to play loose and enjoy the "lack of expectations" and maybe get hot and shake up the 2021 Western Conference Playoff race. If we are successful in sneaking our way into a First Round series with the Utah Jazz, all I can say to the fans of the teams ahead of us who may feel that their squads were more deserving is sorry, not sorry.

#GoSpursGo

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B&S 20/20: Ecstasy at a Bachelor Party

We Are the Champions - June 24th, 1999. I'd been dreaming about this night, this game, this moment for a little over nine years. To be precise, I'd been dreaming about it ever since renewing my love for the game of basketball after returning to Texas from England as a eleven-year-old in January 1990. Let me explain. While living in England in 1989 (because my dad - a college professor - was teaching abroad), I had naturally gravitated away from basketball - my first love - to soccer - my other sport - because well, you know, "when in Rome." In fact, I was so into soccer after moving back home to Texas, that when youth league basketball tryouts started a few weeks after we got back, I had no interest in trying out because I wanted to focus on soccer. My dad (who doubled as my soccer coach) had to convince me to return to my first love and tryout for basketball. I did, had a fantastic 5th grade season in my youth league, and once restored to its original place in my heart, basketball has been my unwavering favorite sport ever since. During the very same season that I was rekindling my love affair with basketball playing in my youth league in Georgetown - just north of Austin, David Robinson was playing his rookie season for the Spurs 120 miles south of me in San Antonio. Full disclosure, during the 1980s as a young tike, I was a fan of Larry Bird and Boston during the period of time that all basketball-loving Americans had to choose sides between Bird's Celtics and Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers. But after returning to Texas and basketball from England and soccer, I fell hard for this electrifying rookie nicknamed the Admiral and the team in closest proximity to my home and since the first time I ever witnessed Robinson block a shot on one end and then sprint down the court like a gazelle past his defender to receive and hammer home a physics-defying alley oop dunk, I have been the biggest die-hard San Antonio Spurs fan on planet Earth. (Being the biggest Spurs fan in the world is a title I'm proud to have held with distinction since 1990 and for those of you who are skeptical and think that your own Spurs fandom might rival or exceed mine you are welcome to look here to verify that you are in fact mistaken and that my claim to the title is more than secure, it's a verifiable fact.). So yeah, after eight well-chronicled and brutally painful Robinson-led Spurs defeats in the Western Conference playoffs (as well as the infamous 1996-97 lottery year that landed us Tim Duncan), June 24th, 1999 was a surreal occurrence, a point in time that I'd been dreaming about daily since January 1990.

There was just one small problem. June 24th, 1999 also just so happened to be the night of my older brother's bachelor party and - as the universe we exist in is never short on irony - I was the best man. How could this be? How could an event I had been dreaming about for almost a decade be taking place on the same night as one of those rare social obligations where there is absolutely no wiggle room for giving anything less than your undivided attention? Yes, the bachelor party was taking place at a gentlemen's establishment and yes, the gentlemen's establishment was going to be showing the television broadcast of the game on their TVs but this simply further complicated my predicament. Casually following along to the game while staying fully engaged in the debauchery...I mean...festivities that I was presiding over in my role as best man was not an option for me. After all, I'm the biggest Spurs fan in the world (remember?) and my team is playing in the NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden up three games to one with a chance to win a championship. Following along casually was not an option. Any diehard sports fan understands this. In a game of this magnitude being played by a team that you love, the ONLY option is to give that game your undivided attention. Keep in mind, this life-altering game was taking place in 1999 not 2019 - there was no such thing as DVRs or watching sporting events "on demand" back then. Suffice it to say, I was in a pretty tough spot. You might be wondering, "Why didn't you plan to record the game on a VCR (hey kids, VCR stands for video cassette recorder...it was a thing back then) and ignore the game at the gentlemen's establishment so that you could watch the tape after and give it your undivided attention?" Well, heading into the bachelor party that was certainly my plan but as you can probably imagine, things did not go according to plan. More on that later. For now since this is a 20th anniversary retrospective post, after all, and since I did watch the game in it's entirety later that night after concluding my duties as best man and have since watched the game in its entirety at least a dozen times over the years on VCR, followed by DVD, and most recently, digitally on YouTube, let's turn our attention to the events as they unfolded in Madison Square Garden - 1700 miles away from where I was simultaneously hosting my brother's bachelor party in Austin - on this date twenty years ago.

The scene was set. The Knick home crowd at Madison Square Garden was going crazy. Each time I've watched the game, I've focused on watching the facial expression of David Robinson and Tim Duncan as they were taking the court for the opening tip. Both displayed a frenetic nervous-excited energy in their expression but balanced that with a calm, confidence deep in their eyes. Jump ball, Game 5, Spurs won the tip and history was set in motion. Both teams traded two empty possessions each before Sean Elliott opened the scoring with two made free throws. Ironically, these two free throws were the only points Sean Elliott scored the entire night. After, two more empty possessions (one each way), Allan Houston tied the game on a floating fader. From there, the Knicks got out to a 6-4 lead but also racked up a bunch of quick, cheap fouls culminating in David Robinson getting the benefit of the doubt on a Charlie Ward block-charge call to earn a dunk and three point play which gave the Spurs a 7-6 lead five minutes in. With such a low score almost halfway through the first period, it was clear that both teams came out a little tight. Shooting was clearly an issue early. The Spurs started 2-11 from the field which, despite our opportunities, allowed New York to swing back into the lead at 9-7 with Latrell Spreewell making 3-4 on foul shots after the Robinson three-point play. Both teams started to loosen up a little and find a rhythm at that point but the Knicks increased their advantage to 15-11 on a 6-4 run. New York got two Larry Johnson post scores and a Kurt Thomas jumper during this stretch but the good news for the Spurs was that Tim Duncan countered with two midrange shots (one a patented banker). Down four, Gregg Popovich called timeout with 3:13 left in the 1st. The Spurs sputtered momentarily coming out of the timeout but after going down six, Jaren Jackson followed two Tim Duncan free throws with a huge 3-pointer to cut the lead to one with 46 seconds left in the first, 21-20. Unfortunately, a Charlie Ward lay-up closed out the 1st quarter scoring giving the Knicks a 23-20 lead after one.

Two minutes into the second quarter, it was clear that second-year phenom Tim Duncan was ready to put the team on his back in order to keep the Spurs within striking distance in the most hostile of hostile environments. Timmy's stat line was up to 10 points and five rebounds a mere 14 minutes into the game. While Duncan's dominant play accomplished the goal of offsetting a deadly New York run, the Knicks were still able to methodically increase their lead to eight, 30-22, four minutes and 30 seconds into the 2nd quarter by cobbling together a 7-0 run. The Spurs punched right back going on an 8-4 run of our own (Timmy four points, Robinson two points, and Mario Ellie two free throws) to cut the New York lead to 34-30 with 3:47 left in second. The momentum stayed with San Antonio the rest of the half as the team started showing signs of the dominance that had propelled us to a 14-2 playoff record. We closed out the half on a emphatic 10-4 run that included a Tim Duncan lay-up, an Avery Johnson jumper, a David jump hook and free throw, and finally Jaren Jackson's huge second three pointer of the half which gave the Spurs their first lead since the first quarter 40-38 heading into the locker room.

The "Remember the Alamo" Twin Tower-led Spurs ratcheted up the defense to start the second half. At the beginning of the third quarter we put together a defensive spurt that included two steals, a Duncan-Robinson block of Latrell Spreewell at the rim, and another Robinson contest at the rim that led to a transition lay-up for Jaren Jackson to increase the lead to 42-38 two minutes into the third. The excitement back home in Texas started building after the Spurs got another stop that led to Jaren Jackson draining his third three of the game. All of the sudden San Antonio had 45-38 lead thanks in large part to Jaren Jackson's 11 huge points. It didn't stop there. After Mario Ellie got fouled on a transition lay up and made two free throws, all told, the Spurs had enjoyed a 25-8 run to take a nine point lead. As expected, the Knicks were not going to allow their season to slip away without a fight. New York went on a quick 5-0 run to cut the Spurs lead to four and had the ball with momentum in a pivotal moment when Latrell Spreewell swung the rock cross court to Allan Houston for an open three (which he drained) but unfortunately for the Knicks, Houston stepped out of bounds before his shot. This was a lucky break for the Spurs in a tight game and a reminder that basketball is a game of inches, if not millimeters. Despite the setback, the Knicks kept coming at us. After the Spurs got two empty trips to the Knicks one, Spreewell elevated for a massive dunk over Jaren Jackson and got fouled. He drained the free throw to cut the lead to one, 47-46 with five minutes and 30 seconds left in the third quarter. Knicks were now on an 8-0 run and Madison Square Garden was going bananas. It should be noted that Spurs point guard Avery Johnson committed his fifth turnover of the game to setup the Spreewell dunk. The floodgates continued as the Spurs missed and then Spreewell hit a baseline jumper to give the Knicks back the lead. The New York lead was now 10-0. Pandemonium in the Garden.Lucky for us, we had a counter up our sleeves in the form of a two-time champion starting shooting guard (Houston Rockets, 1994 & 1995) who was clearly unfazed by the moment having been there so many times before. Mario Ellie displayed some of his Clutch City swagger on the ensuing possession, draining a three to immediately swing the lead back to the Spurs. While Ellie's dagger temporarily silenced the crowd, the Knicks came right back with another pure Spreewell jumper. The "is the moment too big for Avery Johnson?" question reared its ugly head once again as Avery committed his 6th turnover on the next possession and Charlie Ward turned it into a transition lay-up to regain the lead. Knicks were back up two, 52-50 with three minutes and 30 seconds left in the third quarter. At this point, the game was ground to a sudden, unexpected halt due to technical difficulties. The issue was the Spurs’ basket’s shot clock stopped working. After several minutes of officials huddling, the referee's solution was to put a shot clock on the baseline of the Spurs side since, while on offense, the Spurs weren't going to be able to look up over the basket to check the clock. But since NBA players are trained to look for the shot clock over the basket, the decision by the referees put the Spurs at a huge disadvantage since our players would have to now unnaturally look on the baseline for it instead. Coach Pop asked the refs to also turn the shot clock over the Knick's basket off to make it fair and eliminate the possibility that the referees were giving New York a competitive advantage.

After further delay, Popovich lost a ridiculous decision by the refs who ultimately ruled to allow the Knicks to continue to use their over the basket shot clock while the Spurs were being forced to use the back up shot clock on the baseline floor. After all of the negotiation and delay, the Spurs had an empty trip before Allan Houston canned a jumper and increased the Knick's lead to four, 54-50. Unfazed, Tim Duncan came right back by drawing a foul and then draining a turn around bank shot. He also made the free throw to complete a three-point play. A mono y mono theme had begun to emerge as Spreewell broke the Spurs off with another baseline jumper on the Knick's next possession. Down three, a still unfazed Tim Duncan just put his hard hat on and scored the next four points with another patented angle bank shot and then two free throws giving the Spurs the lead back by one. Sprewell, clearly the Knicks go-to player at this point in the game, also showed no signs of slowing down. He hit another 10-foot fade away jumper. San Antonio responded and worked it back to a one point lead with Malik Rose and Timmy both splitting a pair of free throws each to close the third quarter. After three, the Spurs were clinging to a 59-58 lead.The referees finally evened the playing field for the fourth quarter by turning off the Knick’s basket clock and having both teams use a shot clock on the baseline floor. After the teams traded empty possessions to start the fourth, Timmy hit a world class ridiculous fading bank shot jumper to open fourth quarter scoring. Not ready to let the Knick’s season end, Spreewell came right back with quick 5-0 run on a lay-up and then a three-point play (getting fouled on a jumper and then making the free throw) that gave New York the lead back by two. At this point, there's no other way to put it: Tim Duncan and Latrell Spreewell were officially dueling with 26 points each. On cue, Timmy spun in an "anything you can do, I can do better" baseline jump hook to re-tie the game at 63 a piece. After watching the Spurs' power forward regain the upper hand in the Spreewell duel, 28-26, the New York Knickerbockers called timeout.NBC, the network that had the broadcast rights to the NBA Finals in the late 1990s, came back from this particular commercial break to what would later, for people re-watching the telecast, prove to be and eery visual. Obviously, the game was played at Madison Square Garden in New York and just as obviously, the Spurs featured a pair of seven foot all-stars nicknamed the Twin Towers. Those two things being obvious, it was a no brainer that at some point during the broadcast, NBC would come back from commercial with an areal shot of the actual Twin Towers standing tall above the Manhattan sky line. Perfectly sensible at the time, but in retrospect, this shot has proven to be quite solemn and a little spooky knowing this was a mere 15 months before 9/11. I just wanted to acknowledge that and the victims before moving ahead with my recap of the game.

Heading into the timeout, if you remember, Tim Duncan had a 28-26 lead in his personal duel with Latrell Spreewell. Well, on the ensuing possession after the timeout, Spreewell said "not so fast," when he canned a three pointer to take the scoring lead right back from Duncan, 29-28, and, more importantly giving his Knicks the overall lead back, 66-63. If you haven't caught on to our mini-theme, I guess it will be a spoiler to tell you that on the next possession, Timmy worked the Knick’s in the post swinging back the lead in the duel, 30-29, and cutting the Spurs' overall deficit back to a single point. What happened next? You guessed it. Sprewell came right back with a turn around jumper. 31-30 in the duel, 68-65 Knicks on the score board. Bob Costas and Doug Collins, NBC's broadcasters for the game, shrewdly invoked the duel between Larry Bird and Dominique Wilkens in th 1988 Eastern Conference Semifinals. Given the back and fourth between Duncan and Spreewell, this was a nice comparison, the major difference being, however, Duncan and Spreewell weren't matched up regularly guarding each other as Bird and Wilkens were in 1988. So, sure, was the comparison less than perfect? Yes, but to witness two players carrying their teams while going mono y mono in Game Five of the NBA Finals was, nonetheless, an incredible sight to behold.

On the next possession, the mono y mono duel was momentarily tempered when one of the other eight players on the court took it upon himself to forge the audacity to attempt a shot. That player was Spurs point guard, Avery Johnson. He connected on a lay up putting San Antonio back within one. After the Knicks advanced back to their end, David Robinson stole the ball and got to the line, making the first of two and tying the game at 68. The Admiral missed the second and Sean Elliott got the offensive rebound but the Spurs small forward missed the put back attempt and the Knicks regained possession. Back down the court, the Spurs were hit with a second illegal defense (and a technical foul) but Houston missed the free throw. After inbounding again after the miss at the line, Sprewell passed out of a double team and found a cutting Camby for a bucket and an "and 1." Knicks had regained the lead by three.

The two teams then traded empty possessions triggering a timeout. After the break, David Robinson got fouled rebounding a Jaren Jackson miss. He made both and once again cut the Spurs' deficit to one point. Back down the court after Robinson's free throws, Marcus Camby once again dunked, this time on a set up from Larry Johnson. The Admiral came right back with the and 1 but missed the free throw. Still a one point game, 73-72 Knicks. Some great defense by Mario Ellie on Sprewell during the next possession forced him to pass out to a desperation Larry Johnson three that missed. On the other end, Ellie couldn't capitalize on his defensive effort, missing a fade-away jumper. Spreewell marched right back down, rose up and canned another jumper over Elliott. 75-72 Knicks. (33-30 Spree over Timmy in the personal duel.) On the next possession, Mario Ellie was ready to shoot and redeem himself for the poor shot selection on last time down. Out of the double of Timmy, Clutch City came through again as Mario Ellie drained the straightaway three. Tie ball game! The Texas night electric in anticipation.Back on the other end of the court, Timmy got cross matched on Spree (the mono y mono match up we wanted) but unfortunately Timmy fouled. Spreewell made both increasing his advantage in the one-on-one dual to 35-30. More importantly, his two free throws put the Knicks back on top on the scoreboard by 2. After the next offensive possession sputtered, Timmy attempted a desperation 3 that was way off but luckily the Spurs secured the offensive rebound and worked it back to Timmy in the post where he is fouled by Larry Johnson. Timmy made one of two, cutting the dual deficit back down to four (35-31) and the team deficit on the scoreboard back down to one.The next possession proved NBC's earlier cutaway to the Twin Towers clairvoyant in that Timmy and Big Dave combine to make the first in a series of clutch defensive plays.  Robinson and Duncan blocked Sprewell at the rim causing the ball to get pinned for a jump ball. NY won the tap and the Knick’s called timeout with 2:05 remaining and New York clinging to a one point lead. After the break, Duncan once again found himself cross- matched on his mono y mono rival Latrell but this time Timmy forced Spreewell to pass out to Charlie Ward for a desperation three that didn’t hit the rim. The second year Spurs superstar once again demonstrated his all world defensive talent to force a shot clock violation and also prompting one of the most beautiful phrases in the English language...Spurs ball!Unfortunately the good guys were unable to capitalize on the ending critical possession as Robinson missed a jump hook. The Knicks rebounded the miss with 1:26 remaining. If this game, this first-ever Championship was going to be won, it was going to be won at the defensive end of the court. New York orchestrated a clever play to get Avery pinned by their hot hadn't, Sprewell in the post. Timmy doubled to force Sprewell to pass out for a wide open Larry Johnson three. Fortunately, though, Grandmama missed and Ellie rebounded to give San Antonio another chance to take the lead.As any credentialed Spurs fan knows, what came next is not only history but probably the most iconic Spurs moment for all-time: Timmy, doubled in the post, passed out to Sean Elliott. Sean pump faked and drove. Avery Johnson’s man, Chris Childs had moved out to guard Sean on the switch out of the double team so Timmy screened to hold off both Larry Johnson and Spreewell. Sean Elliott hits Avery in the corner and Avery rose up confidently to release a baseline jumper. Spoiler alert: the Little General, the point guard Damon Stoudamire had infamously declared would never lead a team to an NBA Championship,  drained the biggest shot in franchise history. Spurs lead! Spurs lead! 78-77. All of the eyes of Texas are emphatically fixated on Madison Square Garden.

The Spurs were still exactly 47 seconds away from heaven at this point and the victory was far from secured. After a timeout, Sprewell, still leading the mono y mono duel with Timmy 35-31 decided to go into full hero ball mode but missed a fade-away jumper over Elliott. Avery skied in for the rebound putting us one possession closer to euphoria with 27 seconds left. SPURS BALL!!!

Needing to both nurse the clock and get a quality shot to extend the lead and provide us with some breathing room, we worked the ball into David. He elevated and missed badly but he missed so badly that the ball didn’t hit the rim. Somehow Robinson got his own rebound. With the shot clock ticking down, Big Dave fired the ball back out to Elliott who swung it over to Avery. Johnson had no choice but to chunk up a desperation 28 footer to beat the shot clock. The Knicks rebounded the miss and called timeout. While to objective of padding the lead had failed miserably, the objective of milking the clock had been accomplished. The Knicks had only 2.1 seconds left to score and send the series to Game 6. If they failed, Madison Square Garden was about to be generously hosting a party for some out-of -town guests.I wonder who would be getting the ball? Charlie Ward, the Heisman winning college football quarterback at Florida State, was chosen to inbound just passed midcoast on the New York side. The accomplished Quarterback fired a go route pass to Sprewell streaking towards the basket. Sprewell caught the ball in stride, pump faked and then realized the he was under the basket with Sean on him. He spun out baseline to the other side of the rim only to be met by the four outstretched arms of the Twin Towers of Duncan and Robinson. The intimidating defensive tandem had one more shot to intimidate.  Latrell Spreewell rose up and shot a floater over the tree of arm but wasn't able to get enough on the shot to get it over them and on a trajectory to fall back to earth over the basket. Air ball. IT'S ALL OVER! SPURS WIN! SPURS WIN! SPRUS WIN THEIR FIRST EVER NBA CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!

Back in Austin at the gentlemen's establishment, performing my duties as Best Man at my brother's bachelor party had inevitably taken a back seat on my priority list somewhere around the two minute mark in the fourth quarter. My Uncle Bob, who is also a huge Spurs fan and had taken me to my first ever Spurs game against Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics in the late 80's prior to my family's move to London, and I had gravitated to the bar area at the gentlemen's establishment to watch our team try to seal its first championship on the television screen overlooking the bar--the foolish notion of thinking I could avoid the score in order to watch my VHS recording of the game in its entirety at home later that night scrapped as soon as I accidentally discovered we were SO CLOSE to REALIZING THIS DREAM down the stretch. I remember us standing there at the bar completely locked in and hanging on every possession with destiny almost within our grasp. When Avery Johnson hit the go-ahead baseline jumper, Uncle Bob and I exploded in excitement and celebration causing such a ruckus that more of our party joined us at the bar to watch the final minute. As you can imagine, when Latrell Spreewell's final shot went up high in the air to avoid the four extended massive arms of the Twin Towers it felt like an eternity before it dropped short and pandemonium ensued, Uncle Bob and I hugging and celebrating with others from my brother's bachelor party. It felt unreal. It felt amazing. THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS WERE WORLD CHAMPIONS. I don't remember much about the rest of the bachelor party. Most of the details from my brother's wedding the next day are pretty fuzzy 20 years later. But the moment my favorite team won its first ever NBA title is constantly with me. In this regard, a moment of pure joy makes me believe that time is merely an allusion. The moment the San Antonio Spurs won the 1999 NBA Championship was then, is now, and will always be.

#GoSpursGo

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B&S 20/20: Twin Tower Tourists

House of the Rising Sun - It must've been a funny feeling for the players on our Western Conference Champion San Antonio Spurs to walk off of the Madison Square Garden basketball court in New York City on the short end of the score board after Game 3 of the 1999 NBA Finals. After all, the 89-81 loss to the New York Knicks was the first defeat in our past thirteen playoff contests. So, in other words, winning was such a regular occurrence during our 1999 NBA playoff run, it must've been a strange sensation when the (at that time) NBA record-tying 12-game playoff winning streak came to an end. Having had so much recent success, a loss was not only overdue, it was probably also a bit of a refreshing funny, strange sensation. The loss provided a rare opportunity for the team to regroup, refocus and use some much-needed adversity to come back together as one with a unified focus for completing the mission. While on the one hand, one loss after 12 straight victories might not seem like a very big deal, on the other hand, this particular loss gave the Knicks life in their own pursuit of winning a championship. At 2-1 now, the loss brought New York within one game of tying the series with the next two games still being played in their building. Regardless of the 12-game winning steak, the Spurs were in a dog fight still to win our first championship and any kind of lapse in focus could result in us returning to San Antonio down 3-2 and on the brink of elimination. The Game 3 loss, both a curse and a gift, had given New York new life but may also have been the wake up call the Spurs needed in order to summon the focus to finish the job.

Back in MSG a mere 48-hours after the defeat, the focus was evident on the faces of the Spurs' starters as they took the court after opening introductions. After the tip, David Robinson set the tone with some early aggressive blocks. The Admiral's efforts on the defense combined with an overwhelming combined effort with Tim Duncan on the boards allowed the Spurs to get out to an early 15-8 start. It was also evident from early on that the Knicks also came to play. Sparked by an uncharacteristic 10 first quarter points by point guard Charlie Ward, New York responded to the Spurs early push and pushed back to take a 29-27 lead after one.Heading into the second, the Knick's run swelled to 10-2 before Avery Johnson hit a pair of runners to tie the game back up with nine minutes left in the second quarter. Then, after getting a stop, veteran journeyman Jerome Kersey hit a corner jumper to give the Spurs the lead back 33-31. The teams traded baskets for a few possessions until Sean Elliott got a kind bounce on a three point attempt to put the Spurs back up by three at 38-35. Tim played well down the stretch of the second quarter and his 14 first half points helped to keep the Knicks at bay in order to take a 50-46 lead into the locker room at halftime.

I don't know what Gregg Popovich said to the team at halftime, but whatever it was, it ramped the focus up to an unprecedented level as the teams retook the court for the third quarter. How do I know the Spurs' focus was at an unprecedented level? We started the quarter in utterly dominating fashion, hammering the Knicks with a 9-0 run to start the second half. Latrell Spreewell's 10 points in the third quarter kept the Knicks within striking distance but continuing his strong play as the Spurs' floor general, Avery Johnson was up to 14 points of his own for the game after three quarters. Since Duncan and Robinson were continuing to dominate the paint, San Antonio was able to add five extra points to their margin having increased the lead to 72-63 after three.

David Robinson came up huge early in the fourth when his running mate, Tim Duncan, struggled with back to back turnovers early in the frame. The Admiral made some timely buckets and free throws and continued dominating the paint with blocked shots and rebounds. Despite Robinson's brilliance, the gritty Knicks continued to hang around. Game 4 was becoming another "who wants it more" competition of wills and it was reassuring that Big Dave's relentlessness was outshining anything the other side could muster. In one critical play with the Spurs up six points midway through the final frame, Robinson forced Larry Johnson into a tough, air ball fade away. Tim Duncan snatched the rebound and fired a bullet of an outlet to a streaking Mario Ellie for a break away dunk. It was Robinson's effort that made the play possible and was appearing to be winning out in the contest of wills. Latrell Spreewell and Allan Houston, however, had a "not so fast" response. Spreewell made an incredible "force of will" tip in over Duncan and Robinson and then Houston added a patented turn around jumper on the next possession. Throw in a Charlie Ward free throw and the Knicks had cut the lead to 81-80 with five and a half minutes to play.

The Twin Towers absorbed the body blow and responded with back to back buckets of their own (Robinson first, then Duncan). Mario Ellie tacked on a free throw and the Spurs' lead was back up to six. The back and forth continued as Marcus Camby made a three point play and Larry Johnson followed with a free throw to cut the lead back to two at 86-84. The momentum would swing back to the Spurs yet again but this time, we wouldn't relinquish it. The suffocating San Antonio defense (anchored by the Twin Towers) dominated down the stretch as the Spurs held the Knicks scoreless for several straight possessions. On the other end of the court, Elliott, Robinson, Johnson and Duncan all participated in a parade to the free throw line. When the dust settled, the Spurs had made 8-10 (4 from Elliott, 2 from Duncan, 2 from Robinson, 0-2 from Avery) and extended the lead to 94-84 with under a minute to play. Marcus Camby provided a "too little too late" 4-0 run with a quick couple of buckets to bring New York back within six at 94-88 with 17 seconds left. Mario Ellie officially sealed the victory with two free throws before Camby made the game's final point on a free throw of his own when the game was out of reach. All told, the San Antonio Spurs defeated the New York Knicks 96-89 to take a 3-1 lead and inch within one victory of our first-ever NBA Championship.

The player of the game deserved to be split between two players. Here is their combined stat line: 42 points, 35 rebounds, 7 blocks. Can you guess which members of the Twin Towers I'm referencing? Exactly - David Robinson and Tim Duncan were incredible. 35 rebounds, in particular, by two players is astonishingly dominant. Since the rules of our blog series are such that I have to choose a singular player of the game, let me first single out Big Dave for individual recognition. Robinson had 14 points, 17 rebounds, and four blocks. In case you don't feel like doing the quick math, that means that Tim Duncan had 28 points, 18 rebounds, 3 blocks and oh, by the way...also three assists in Game 4 of the NBA Finals as a freaking sophomore NBA player. Yeah, I think even D-Rob would agree, Tim Duncan is the player of the game. The first player since Magic Johnson to perform at basketball's biggest stage at such a high level at such a young age, the recent Wake Forrest graduate had led the San Antonio Spurs to within one victory of their first-ever NBA Championship. Along with the 3-1 series lead came an opportunity to close out inside basketball's most storied arena - Madison Square Garden two nights later. 48 hours to glory? Or 48 hours to just another Friday night in Manhattan? Stay tuned and...

#GoSpursGo

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B&S 20/20: When the Garden Was Eden

Welcome to New York City - Welcome to the Empire State. Home of the World Trade. Birthplace of Michael Jordan. Home of Biggie Smalls.. How fitting a setting. The San Antonio Spurs first NBA Finals road game in franchise history was scheduled to be played in the Mecca, Madison Square Garden, the most famous and arguably most historic basketball arena on the planet. The New York Knicks, our opponents faced a do-or-die must-win scenario in Game 3 on their home floor having dropped both games to the Spurs in San Antonio and trailing the Finals 0-2. On June 21st 1999, Knicks fans packed the storied arena in hopes of rekindling the magic of the summer when the city cheered on Walt Frasier, Willis Reed, Bill Bradley, Dave DuBusschere, and Phil Jackson to the 1973 NBA Championship. You know, the summer When the Garden Was Eden.

Channeling some of their storied ghosts, New York did the first day of summer justice by coming out blazing hot to take an early 20-10 lead. On this Monday evening that doubled as the Summer Solstice, the Knicks would've been primed to boat race San Antonio out of historic Madison Square Garden in the first period (right along side Spring) if it hadn't been for Spurs reserve guard Antonio Daniels hitting two improbable first quarter threes to keep us within striking distance. All told, New York, led by Allan Houston with 13 first quarter points, enjoyed an 11 point 32-21 advantage after the first quarter.

Having absorbed a powerful blow in the first, the Spurs punched back in the second. Following the lead of all-world power forward, Tim Duncan and former league MVP David Robinson, the Spurs outscored the Knicks 25-17 in the second quarter to cut the halftime deficit to 3 (49-46) and put ourselves within striking distance to take an insurmountable 3-0 series lead with a solid second half. Adding to the Knick's concern that the season might be slipping away was the fact that backup point guard Chris Childs got hurt and his second-half return was questionable. Avery Johnson had a good overall first half playing his role as floor general efficiently. Johnson would finish the night with 10 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds, and a steal but the boxscore fails to do justice in conveying the impact that Avery had controlling the tempo and setting up his bigs to earn a lot of the credit for preventing the Spurs from succumbing to the energy of the Knicks and their crowd and getting blown out in the first half.

Relying on the stingy defense that had become our trademark throughout the playoff run, San Antonio started the third quarter 12-9 to tie the game up at 58. In one particular stretch, the Spurs defense forced New York into 12 consecutive missed field goals. True to form, Duncan and Robinson aka the Twin Towers led the defensive effort with pestering the Knicks into rushed shots and then gobbling up every rebound in sight. New York was able to eventually make up the three-point margin they had conceded earlier in the period and played San Antonio to even (16-16) by the end of the defensive-brawl of a third quarter. In so doing, New York was able to maintain its slight three point advantage heading into the fourth.

The tone for the final frame was set when Marcus Camby had a vicious follow up slam early in the period. The Madison Square Garden faithful were also given a boost by Chris Childs return to play in the final seconds of the third and seeing him retake the court to start the fourth. With momentum on their side, the Knicks extended the lead and kept us at bay as time on the clock (and for the Spurs to make a run) methodically ticked away. With 3:11 left to play, Sean Elliot hit a three that cut New York's lead to four (81-77) and that would prove to be as close as we would get to closing the margin late in the fourth. The Knicks held us off down the stretch by making most of their crunch time free throws.

Ultimately, the New York Knicks snagged their first NBA Finals victory in five years, winning 89-81 to cut the Spurs' series lead to 2-1. The most telling stat in explaining why the Spurs lost? Tim Duncan did not score in the fourth quarter. Even with a goose egg in crunch time, Timmy finished the game with a solid 20 points (8-16 from the field), 12 rebounds, three steals, two assists, and a block. The player of the game, however, was his Twin Tower running mate. David Robinson finished the night with 25 points, 10 rebounds, two blocks, and an assist. There was no question The Admiral could tasted his first title and wanted this game badly to put a strangle-hold on the series.

In the end, New York's own dynamic duo proved to be too much. Allan Houston finished with a gigantic 34 points and Latrell Spreewell tacked on another 24 points and five assists. Incredibly, this was the Spurs first playoff defeat since May 11th (an 80-71 home loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round) and the defeat snapped the Spurs' 12 game playoff winning streak. Setting playoff winning streak records was the furthest thing from the team's minds leaving the Garden that night. The 1999 NBA Finals was now a 2-1 series and that meant it was up for grabs. The Western Conference Champions had no choice but to regroup and start a new playoff winning streak. Our first opportunity would come two days later back in the Garden and for the next 48 hours, starting a new winning streak would be the only thing on our minds.

#GoSpursGo

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B&S 20/20: The Small Matter of Planning a Coronation

Learn to Fly - Sixth months prior to the turn of the century (and the millennium depending on your counting), the future looked pretty bright for the New York Knickerbockers and their fans. Their longtime finals-preventing-nemesis Michael Jordan was retired and the stranglehold on the Eastern Conference he and his Chicago Bulls had maintained during all of the non-baseball-interrupted nineties was no more. With an adoring fan-base, vast resources, and playing in the biggest market in the East, the Knicks were well positioned to dominate the conference in the coming decade. More importantly, New York had been gifted a rare opportunity to own the present. Stealthily weaving together their second Finals run of the nineties by overcoming the enormous odds of winning the East as the eighth-seed (and even more astronomical odds given they lost their franchise cornerstone Patrick Ewing to injury for the season during the process), even down 0-1 to our Western Conference Champion San Antonio Spurs heading into Game 2, the Knicks were, by any measure, playing with house money with the unlikely opportunity in front of them. Sure, the walls they needed to scale were daunting. Conquering the most imposing set of Twin Towers in NBA history would be no easy feat. The Spurs were a juggernaut but admittedly, we were an unproven one and NBA history suggested that opportunities to be the first team to climb the mountain the year after a dynasty falls don't come along very often. On June 18th, 1999, only two teams still had that opportunity and the Knicks were one of them. Regardless of the talent deficit, the New York and San Antonio franchises were on equal footing as far as trying to establish a championship-winning meddle and for that reason, the Knicks walked back into the Alamodome for Game 2 with a puncher's chance to steal the final chapter of the NBA's storied century.

In order to make good on their unlikely opportunity to close the century as champions, the Knicks needed to punch their ticket back to New York with a Game 2 victory and a 1-1 series. The history of the 2-3-2 NBA Finals format demanded as much. At the time, no team that had started the Finals on the road had ever swept their three home games in the middle of 2-3-2 format. That being the case, the Knicks could only reasonably expect to win two of their three home games in New York so, already down 0-1, Game 2 was a de facto must-win for the underdogs. Should the Spurs win Game 2, the Knicks could almost certainly expect to at best return to San Antonio down 3-2 and needing to win both final road games to win the series. Considering how much of an uphill challenge that would be, there was no getting around the fact that New York desperately needed a Game 2 victory and the split to realistically keep their title hopes alive.Once the game tipped off, despite playing with the necessary desperation, New York found themselves playing from behind all night in a defensive slugfest. The Spurs jumped out to an early 20-15 lead after one quarter but the Knicks needed a late spurt just to stay within striking distance. The Spurs building a lead and then the Knicks going on a run to close the gap proved to be the theme of the night. New York held San Antonio to even in the second quarter (19-19) and went into the halftime break still only down five. The Spurs outpaced the Knicks by two points in the third (17-15) to increase our lead to seven heading into the final frame. In the fourth quarter, San Antonio put New York away with a dominating 24-18 fourth quarter performance that put the Knicks exactly where they knew that couldn't afford to be...down 0-2 in the NBA Finals heading home.

The final score was an eye-popping 80-67. (That's right, the New York Knicks scored a putrid 67 points in an NBA Finals game.) The player of the game was once again Tim Duncan. Timmy had a monster 25 points (9-19 shooting), 15 rebounds, four blocks, and three assists. David Robinson stepped up big once again with 16 points (5-8 shooting), 11 rebounds, five blocks, and four assists. That's correct, you read that right. The Twin Towers combined for nine blocked shots to build upon one of the most dominating interior defensive Finals performances in NBA history. While Latrell Spreewell (26 points) and Allan Houston (19 points) led the charge in keeping the Knicks within striking distance for most of the game, neither shot the ball efficiently (.364 & .450, respectively) and could never find enough holes in the Spurs interior defense to keep pace with San Antonio's offense. Finally, I want to make a special note to recognize Spurs point guard Avery Johnson. By the numbers, Johnson's performance was quite pedestrian (eight points and five assists) but the numbers simply don't do justice to Avery's masterful floor game. All night he made sure Duncan and Robison got the ball in their preferred spots and controlled the pace of the game in such a way that eventually allowed the Spurs defense to grind the Knicks to dust. Taking a dominant 2-0 lead in the series and extending our playoff winning-streak to a then record 12 straight games, it was starting to look and feel like the San Antonio Spurs being crowned 1999 NBA Champions was simply a matter of time.

#GoSpursGo

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B&S 20/20: The Hillary Step

Get Ready for This - Throughout my childhood growing up in Central Texas, I had regularly dreamed about this moment. As far as moments go for a city and its fans, this one was huge and luckily, the city of San Antonio had a building huge enough in its own right to handle it. 39,514 success-starved, exuberant Spurs fans packed themselves into the Alamodome on June 16th, 1999 to be a part of history. Unfortunately, as many times as I had imagined participating in this historic event throughout my childhood, I was not one of them. While I had just completed my sophomore year in college at Trinity University in San Antonio, after the Spring semester I accepted a summer job back in Austin and I was working a demanding schedule that did not afford me the time off to make it back to San Antonio to take part in my beloved Spurs historic moment. If my memory serves me correctly, I watched history unfold in a pool hall with some work friends in Austin. Even though I wasn't there in person, it was still surreal seeing my Spurs, perennial regular season overachievers and playoff underachievers, host the first game in the NBA's showcase event of the post-Chicago Bulls dynasty. (More on that later.) When Spurs legend George Gervin strolled to center court to toss up the ceremonial jump ball that commemorated the Spurs being the first former ABA club to reach such a milestone, it started setting in for me that my childhood dream was becoming a reality. The San Antonio Spurs were finally about to play in the NBA Finals.

Going into the series, we were heavily favored over our opponents, the New York Knicks. Because of the lockout-shortened season, the Knicks came into the playoffs with a more talented roster than their seed (eighth) reflected. They were able to use that talent to become the first 8-seed in league history to advance to the NBA Finals, dispatching the higher-seeded Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks, and Indiana Pacers to grab the Eastern Conference crown. Nonetheless, with franchise cornerstone Patrick Ewing sidelined due to injury for the series, the Knicks entered the series as one of the biggest underdogs in Finals history. It didn't help the Knicks title hopes that not only were they facing the 1-seed from the West but the Spurs were marching into the Finals boasting a 10-game playoff winning streak (our last loss against the Timberwolves in Game 2 of the first round). Despite the long odds, New York came out sharp in the first quarter taking an early 27-21 lead after one. The Knicks were led to the early lead by Allan Houston draining midrange jumpers and Latrell Spreewell making aggressive moves into the paint. Not to be overshadowed, Tim Duncan hit the first shot of the series, a signature bank shot from the elbow and established himself early as the best player in the series. By the second quarter, San Antonio had settled into form taking an eight-point lead (45-37) into the locker room. The second half was more of the same of what the Spurs showed in the second quarter, playing the Knicks even in the third and then outscoring them 18-14 in a defensive masterpiece of a fourth quarter. The outcome of the contest was never really in doubt in the second half. When the dust settled, the Spurs were leading their first-ever NBA Finals one game to none with a commanding 89-77 victory. Another thing was clear one game into the series. A player had emerged to grab the best basketball player in the world title that had been vacated by Michael Jordan at the beginning of the calendar year. And that player's debut on the NBA Finals stage demonstrated a similar dominance to His Airness' debut.

On June 2nd, 1991, after years of Eastern Conference playoff disappointment, Michael Jordan finally had his first opportunity to showcase his talents in the NBA's premier showcase, the NBA Finals. His Airness did not disappoint that night putting up a jaw-dropping 36 points (14-24 shooting), 12 assists, eight rebounds, and three steals in a hard-fought two point defeat for his Chicago Bulls against Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers (93-91). Jordan's Bulls would go on to win the next four straight and his first championship, followed by five more chips over the next seven seasons. Fast forward to the end of the decade and the title of best basketball player alive was up for grabs following Jordan's retirement on January 13th, 1999.

In a similar demonstration of dominance on basketball's biggest stage to the player from whom he was snatching the mantle, Tim Duncan produced an epic NBA Finals debut. En route to earning player of the game honors, Timmy had 33 points (13-21 shooting), 13 rebounds, two assists, two steals, and two blocks. It seems weird in retrospect given that Michael Jordan's NBA career began in 1984 and Tim Duncan's ended in 2016 that these two "Finals debut" performances were a mere eight years apart.Another key performer in the Game 1 victory was David Robinson. After 10 years of playoff disappointment as the Spurs "number one" option, the Admiral graciously accepted a new role in the lockout shortened 1999 season as the team's second option and defensive anchor. It paid off in a big way because not only was this game Tim Duncan's NBA Finals debut, but it was also Big Dave's NBA Finals debut as well. While not the legendary Finals debut of his younger teammates, Robinson had a fantastic all-around game with 13 points, nine rebounds, seven assists, three steals, and three blocks. By the way, the Twin Towers combined five blocks in Game 1 does not do justice to how dominant the tandem was on the defensive end. They were dominant on that end of the court, disrupting numerous other shots while leading the way in limiting the Knicks to 31-81 from the field (.383) and only 77 total points.Finally, journeyman Jaren Jackson gets an honorable mention for his 17 point (6-13 shooting), two rebound, two assist, one steal performance. Jaren proved to be an important offensive spark plug off of the bench, hitting timely jumpers including an improbable, off-balance triple in the corner.

After the game, I remember leaving the pool hall in Austin beaming with confidence and bouncing off of the walls with anticipation. My long suffering, underdog, small market San Antonio Spurs were just three wins away from an NBA Championship. I remember being all smiles as I drove home to get some sleep that night after the game. I couldn't wait to see what would happen 48 hours later in Game 2. Friday night couldn't get here fast enough.

#GoSpursGo

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B&S 20/20: Memorial Day Miracle

Lose Yourself - Damon Stoudamire, Arvydas Sabonis, Rasheed Wallace, Brian Grant, Isaiah Rider, Stacey Augmon, Jim Jackson, Walt Williams, Jermaine O'Neal, and Greg Anthony came to play that day. As we knew they would. After all, every higher-seeded playoff team understands that stealing one of the first two games on the road as the underdog increases your chances of winning the series astronomically. Having lost 80-76 in the grind fest that was Game 1, the two-seeded Portland Trail Blazers, a healthy mix of talented budding superstars and savvy established veterans, were a confident (bordering on cocky) bunch that had every intention of advancing to the NBA Finals and, as a stepping stone towards that end, had every intention of winning Game 2 of the 1999 Western Conference Finals at the Alamodome in San Antonio against the one-seeded Spurs. Led by Mike Dunleavy, an experienced coach who already had one NBA Finals appearance under his belt (1991, as coach of the last Magic Johnson-led Los Angeles Lakers team to reach basketball's ultimate stage), the Blazers came into the game that Memorial Day afternoon poised and prepared to do what it would take to seize a home-court-advantage-stealing victory.

After one quarter, Portland was well on its way. The Blazers came out focused, shot well, and bullied their way to an early 31-20 eleven point lead after one. The second quarter slowed down to a sluggish stalemate as each team tried to impose their defensive will. When the dust settled on the first half, Portland had increased their lead by 14, out-grinding the Spurs 17-14 in the second period and taking a 48-34 advantage with them into the locker room. Part of the Blazer's recipe for holding San Antonio to a 34 point first half was keeping the Spur's young superstar Tim Duncan in relative check. Timmy seemed to get lost in the shuffle of the first half, missing a few free throws and battling the Blazers big men with less than his normal aggressiveness down low. Overall, the Spurs just seemed to be a step slow like we were stuck in cement. Boasting a seven-game playoff winning streak, I remember it being tempting down 14 at the half to just assume we were overdue for bad game and assume this just wasn't meant to be our afternoon. Certainly, the Blazers were counting on as much.

After halftime, the third quarter started with more of the same as the Blazers extended their lead to 18 points. Things started looking up when Sean Elliott made a three pointer that ignited a run for the Spurs to get back in the game. Everything finally just started clicking. Mario Ellie provided much needed energy to give the Spurs some life, David Robinson anchored the defense to give us some transition opportunities, Timmy started looking like Timmy, and Sean Elliott was hitting crucial three point baskets. By the end of the third, the home team had cut the halftime deficit in half, winning the quarter 26-19 and only trailing Portland 67-60 heading into the final frame. The Spurs continued their comeback push into the fourth quarter but each time we were able to cut the lead down to a two possession lead or less, Portland seemed to have an answer to continue to hold us at bay. Despite the improved second half play, things were still looking pretty grim with 1:05 left to play. We were still down six, 84-78. Luckily, we had possession of the ball coming out of a timeout and having demonstrated an ability to score in spurts during the second half, we still had a glimmer of hope. The ball was inbounded to Avery Johnson and our floor general ran a pick and role with The Admiral and, coming off the screen, fired the ball out to Sean Elliot on the left wing. Without hesitation, Sean rose up and buried his fifth three pointer of the game to cut the lead in half. With Portland now feeling a newfound sense of pressure nursing a one-possession lead, Jimmy Jackson caught the inbound pass, came back down, ran some clock, and got the ball to Rasheed Wallace on the left elbow. Wallace looked down into the low block where Jackson had established post position. He picked up his dribble to drop the ball in the post with Robinson draped all over him. As he tried to pass the ball, Big Dave got a finger on the pass and intercepted it. He quickly spotted Mario Ellie sprinting down the court and fired the outlet to him. Ellie caught the ball and drove hard into the paint, drawing a foul on the layup attempt. Mario, a two-time champion (Houston Rockets, 1994 & 95) and highly experienced playoff veteran calmly sank both foul shots cutting the lead to one, 84-83. Their statement road victory, now in catastrophic jeopardy, Portland called a timeout to regroup. Coming out of the timeout, the Blazers inbounded the ball to Wallace who immediately got it to Damon Stoudamire in order to set up a pick and role. Stoudamire came off of the Wallace screen and shot an elbow jump shot that clanked off of the rim. Unfortunately, the Spurs were unable to secure the rebound as Walt Williams rose up and snagged it. He got the ball back out to Wallace who fired it over to Jimmy Jackson and, now under 24 seconds left in the game, San Antonio was forced to foul. Sean fouled Jackson with 12.4 seconds left but, unable to catch a break, we weren't in the penalty yet. The Blazers took the ball out on the side and got it in to Stoudamire who was fouled immediately by Avery with 12.0 seconds remaining. With Mighty Mouse now facing two high-pressure shots one thing was clear: barring an offensive rebound on the second attempt, the Spurs were going to have a chance to either tie or win the game on their next possession.

Damon Stoudamire walked up the line to take what would prove to be the biggest free throw shots of his career and, after methodically dribbling the ball four times, misfired on the first attempt. A slight hint of dejection on his face, he went back into his routine and then made the second attempt to increase Portland's lead to two, 85-83. After the second shot went through the net, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called timeout to draw up a play. San Antonio came out of the timeout with 12 seconds left in the game and lined up a play that had Mario Ellie inbounding the ball. After seeing how the Spurs were set up, Portland used a delay of game warning to make the Spurs reset the inbound play. Using Steve Kerr as a decoy on the strong side, the Spurs ran Sean Elliott off of a David Robinson screen. Sean gained a hint of daylight on his defender Stacey Augmon coming off of Big Dave's screen and so Mario Ellie fired the ball to him in the corner. Augmon gambled by going for the steal and when he missed it, he was effectively out of the play. Rasheed Wallace alertly started coming over to help as Sean caught the ball on his tippy toes in the corner. He was so close to the sidelines that had he put his heels down on the ground, he would've been out of bounds. Maybe he was aware of his proximity to the sideline or maybe it was simply fate but instead of bringing his heels down, he turned and fired a three off of his tippy toes and over the closing outstretched long arms of Rasheed Wallace and buried the Memorial Day Miracle with nine seconds left to give the Spurs an improbable 86-85 lead.

Forty seven minutes and fifty one seconds. Once again, after trailing for the first forty seven minutes and fifty one seconds of the game, Sean Elliott’s miracle, tippy-toe, rainbow three over the outstretched fingertips of Rasheed Wallace gave the San Antonio Spurs their first lead of the game. Our first lead of the game would also prove to be the final score as Portland was unable to get a clean look in the final seconds coming out of a timeout. After the Spurs returned the favor using their delay of game, Portland inbounded to Jimmy Jackson who drove and attempted a shot that was blocked. The blocked shot popped back out to Walt Williams who fired a desperation attempt that unsuccessfully bounced off the backboard and the rim. After a scramble for the rebound, Avery Johnson came out of a scrum with the basketball and the miracle comeback was complete. The Spurs won the game in unbelievable heroic fashion, 86-85.

I remember watching Sean's shot go in and believing for the first time, after years of agonizing playoff heartbreak, that my Spurs could and would win a championship. In many ways, the Memorial Day Miracle was the spark that ignited a basketball revolution in South Texas that continues to burn true to this very day. The five NBA championships, six conference championships, perennial playoff appearances, the universal recognition as the NBA’s model franchise, all of it can be traced back to Sean’s shot. To this day, it is still probably the most memorable moment in franchise history and one that Spurs fans have come to cherish. Considering that Sean Elliot has spent the better part of the last twenty years as the Spurs' color television analyst, it's probably also the most shown highlight in team history. Season after season, Sean is always more than happy to talk about the shot during Spurs broadcast anytime the Fox Sports Southwest team feels compelled to show the replay.

The player of the game was, of course, Sean Elliott. After draining the biggest shot in franchise history, the most beloved Spurs small forward of all-time finished 6-7 from downtown (8-10 overall) to come up with his 22 huge points. He also chipped in two rebounds, two assists, and a steal towards the mesmerizing comeback victory. After a quiet start in the first half, Tim Duncan finished the game with impressive numbers, as well. Timmy finished with 23 points (8-11 shooting), 10 rebounds, five blocks, and two assists. Last but not least was David Robinson's impressive stat line. The Admiral finished with 14 points (6-10 shooting), seven rebounds, two assists, and three huge steals (the last of which gave the Spurs the two Mario Ellie free throws that put them in position to win the game). As you might've guessed, the Trailblazers were unable to recover from the devastating loss dropping both home games in Portland. The sweep in the 1999 Western Conference Finals sent the San Antonio Spurs to their first-ever NBA Finals to face the New York Knicks. It's incredible to think about the fact that it's been 20 years since the Memorial Day Miracle. Since theLeftAhead wasn't established until 2011 and the Black & Silver blog series didn't exist for the first four Spurs championships, in keeping with the practice of featuring a blog post about each episode of Friends on the 20th anniversary of it's airing with Friends 20/20, I'm really excited to relive some of the most important moments in the first four Spurs title runs on the 20th anniversary of important playoff games through this new mini-series, B&S 20/20. What better place to start than the Memorial Day Miracle. See you next month for the 1999 NBA Finals. 

#GoSpursGo

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Thirteen Port

Things Done Changed - Gregg Popovich is 3-3 coaching in Game 7s. He won his first at home on basketball's biggest stage in an 81-74 defensive masterpiece against the Detroit Pistons to closeout the bloodbath that was also known as the 2005 NBA Finals and capture our third NBA title. Manu Ginobili, the most beloved Spur that Pop has ever coached, was magnificent in the championship-clinching victory tallying 23 points (8-13 from the field, 5-5 from the line), five rebounds, four assists, and one steal. Coach Pop lost his second Game 7 the following season again at home, this time battling our Texas arch rival Dallas Mavericks in the 2006 Western Conference Semifinals. In that series, we stormed back from being down three games to one and would've closed out the Mavs with a Manu three in the last minute, except for future Hall-of-Famer Dirk Nowitzki having other ideas. We dropped a heartbreaker that night in overtime 119-111 largely due to Nowitzki's heroic 37 points, 15 rebound, three assist, one block, and one steal performance. Popovich coached his first-ever road Game 7 in his third winner-take-all contest in the 2008 Western Conference Semifinals against the New Orleans Hornets. After being 0-3 playing in New Orleans heading into Game 7, the Spurs closed out the Chris Paul-led scrappy Hornets 91-82. Manu once again led the way with 26 points, five rebounds, and five assists. Back on basketball's biggest stage, Coach Pop came up short in his second road (fourth overall) Game 7 in the 2013 NBA Finals, losing the game and the title 95-88 to the Miami Heat. Considering we'd just experienced the most painful loss in franchise history 48 hours earlier, it was a masterful coaching effort by Pop and a valiant effort by the Spurs but, ultimately, LeBron James' 37 points, 12 rebounds, four assists and two steal were just too much to overcome. In Pop and the Spurs very next playoff series, we served our rivals from Dallas some revenge for 2006, winning Pop's 5th Game 7 at home 119-96 in the 2014 Western Conference First Round against the Mavericks. Tony Parker played a dominant offensive game scoring 32 points en route to series win and ultimately our 5th title. The next season, once again in a Western Conference First Round Game 7 situation, Coach Pop and the Spurs, this time on the road (after dropping from the 3-seed to the 6-seed on the final day of the regular season with a no-show performance ironically in New Orleans) dropped another heartbreaker 111-109 to the Los Angeles Clippers. Chris Paul capped his 27 point, six assists performance with the game winner, a shot that was literally millimeters away from being blocked. So yes, all told, Coach Pop is 3-3 in Game 7s. The more perceptive among you may have noticed a pattern to Pop's 3-3 Game 7 record. For those of you that don't want to take the time to go back and re-read the paragraph in order to figure out the pattern, here it is: winning then losing then winning then losing then winning then losing. I'm no master code cracker, but it seems to me that according to the pattern, Gregg Popovich's next Game 7 should be a win. Of course (full disclosure), there was one constant in all of Coach Pop's previous six Game 7's that will unfortunately be noticeably absent for his seventh: The Greatest Power Forward of All-Time. Let's pause for a moment and pay our respects... 

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Tim Duncan - Career Game 7 Performances

2005 NBA Finals Game 7 - Detroit Pistons @ San Antonio Spurs

25 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks - 6/23/2005

2006 Western Conference Semifinals Game 7 - Dallas Mavericks @ San Antonio Spurs

41 points, 15 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 blocks, 1 steal - 5/22/2006

2008 Western Conference Semifinals Game 7 - San Antonio Spurs @ New Orleans Hornets

16 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal - 5/19/2008

2013 NBA Finals Game 7 - San Antonio Spurs @ Miami Heat

24 points, 12 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 assists, 1 block - 6/18/2013

2014 Western Conference First Round - Dallas Mavericks @ San Antonio Spurs

15 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 assist - 5/4/2014

2015 Western Conference First Round - San Antonio Spurs @ Los Angeles Clippers

27 points, 11 rebounds, 1 assist - 5/2/2015

Career Game 7 Averages

24.7 points, 12 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.3 blocks, and 1 steal per game

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Happy Birthday, TD! I hope you had an awesome b-day on Thursday. How'd you like the party the San Antonio Spurs threw for you at the AT&T Center Thursday night? I know, right? That party was lit. Anyway, I actually have something else to discuss with you. I know you have the 21 USVI Duncan Relief Fund, your auto shop, kickboxing, and your wonderful family keeping you busy, but just in case all of that isn't adequately filling up your retirement calendar, I know of a nice little pickup basketball game that some of your friends will be playing here in Denver tonight. I'm sure they'd be happy to get the help of a 24.7 point, 12 rebound, 2.7 assist, 1.3 block, 1 steal power forward performance during tonight's Mile High run. So do you wanna come through? What's that? You're not going to be able to get here to Denver on short notice? Okay, gotcha. No worries, I totally understand. I know you're super busy. It was worth a shot, though, right? It's still all good that you can't get up here in time because one of your former teammates told me that as a belated b-day gift, he's going to honor you with his best attempt at an impersonation and put everything he's got into channeling your greatness from the moment the first ball gets checked until we turn out the lights because there's no challengers left to get next. Speaking of which, LA also asked me to tell you, "Happy Birthday, Old Man." Okay, cool. I'll let him know you said, "thanks." Alright, Timmy. It's been good catching up. Sorry to let you go but I've got a blog post to finish writing. Enjoy the rest of your birthday celebration. Let's talk again soon but in case we don't cross paths before it, I'm looking forward to seeing you the September after next in Springfield, MA.

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On Thursday night, the heirs to Tim Duncan's San Antonio playoff fortress gave the former king of Texas postseason basketball a spectacular 43rd birthday present, defeating the visiting Denver Nuggets 120-103 at home in Timmy's house (aka the AT&T Center) to keep the season alive and force the first Game 7 of the post-Duncan era. With our backs against the wall and when we needed it the most, we finally got solid performances up and down the roster. As has often been the case in this series, our two stars led the charge. LaMarcus Aldridge came out of the gate in beast mode, scoring 13 points in the first quarter while setting the tone for the game with his intensity. LA finished his night with 26 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists. Not to be outdone, DeMar DeRozan (mostly a facilitator in the first half) aggressively attacked the heart of Denver's defense with an array of spectacular drives and pull up mid-range jumpers to score 12 points in the third quarter. DeMar finished with 25 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists. The player of the game, however, was Rudy Gay. Coming off the bench, Rudy had his best performance of the series contributing 19 points, four rebounds, and two assists in 28 tough-nosed minutes. Rudy's production was so critical, he got the POTG nod but I really want to emphasize that this was special all-around team elimination game performance. All five starters shot better than 50 percent from the field (DeRozan [12-16], Aldridge [10-18], Forbes [5-8], Poeltl [4-6], and White [4-7]) and for the first time since Game 1 of this series, our bench outscored the Nuggets' bench (36-13). Also for the first time since Game 1 of this series, the Spurs outshot Denver from deep going 10-24 (41.7 percent) compared to the Nuggets 6-24 (25 percent). While our shooters (with the exception of Patty [0-7]) made a marked improvement on three-point production (Rudy Gay [3-3], Derrick White [2-3], Bryn Forbes [2-4], Marco Belinelli [2-4]), I wouldn't exactly call it the break-out three-point shooting performance that we're overdue for in this series. That is good news heading into tonight. If things keep regressing to the mean (as they should) in Game 7, we can feel good that our shooters will make a huge impact from behind the arc in tonight's winner-take-all contest. Now more overdue for a breakout performance than any other Spurs marksman, I fully expect Patty Mills to be leading that charge.

There is nothing else in basketball quite like a Game 7. The pressure and the intensity are impossible to replicate so until a player has actually been through one, it's impossible for that player to truly know what to expect and fully appreciate the stakes. So how do the San Antonio Spurs and Denver Nuggets stack up as far as prior Game 7 experience? I was curious to have the answer to this question so yesterday I did a little bit of research. First for the Spurs, DeMar DeRozan has the most Game 7 experience of any player in the series. For the 2014 Toronto Raptors, DeMar had 18 points (5-12 shooting) in 45 minutes in a First Round Game 7 loss to the Brooklyn Nets. In 2016, DeMar led the Raptors to a First Round Game 7 victory over the Indiana Pacers scoring 30 points (10-32 shooting) in 40 minutes. In the very next round, DeMar scored 28 points (12-29 shooting) in 35 minutes for the Raptors in a Eastern Conference Semifinals win over the Miami Heat. For the 2012 Memphis Grizzlies, Rudy Gay scored 19 points (7-15 shooting) in 40 minutes in a First Round Game 7 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. In the same game, Quincy Pondexter came off the Grizzlies' bench scoring three points (1-2 shooting) in 13 minutes and Dante Cunningham also came off the Grizzlies' bench scoring two points (1-2) shooting in three minutes. Quincy was also on the roster for the 2014 Memphis Grizzlies First Round Game 7 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, but was not active (out-for-the-season with a right foot injury). For the 2013 Chicago Bulls, Marco Belinelli had 24 points (8-14 shooting) in 41 minutes in a First Round Game 7 win over the Brooklyn Nets. In our infamous 2015 First Round Game 7 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers, Marco had two points (0-2 shooting) in 18 minutes off of the bench. Patty Mills had six points (2-6 shooting) in 16 minutes off of the bench in the same game. Patty was also on our roster during the 2013 NBA Finals but was not active for Game 7. Donatas Motiejunas was on the 2015 Houston Rockets roster when they won a Western Conference Semifinals Game 7 over the Los Angeles Clippers but he did not play (out-for-the-season with a back injury). Funnily enough, in his 13-year NBA career, LaMarcus Aldridge has never played in a Game 7. Tonight will be his first.

The only rotations players on the Nuggets roster with Game 7 experience are Paul Millsaps and Mason Plumlee. As a rookie for the 2007 Utah Jazz, Millsaps scored two points in seven minutes off the bench in a First Round Game 7 win against the Houston Rockets. For the 2014 Atlanta Hawks, Millsaps scored 15 points (6-21 shooting) in 44 minutes in a First Round Game 7 loss to the Indiana Pacers. As a rookie, Plumlee logged scored two points and logged 5 minutes for the 2014 Brooklyn Nets in their Western Conference First Round Game 7 victory over DeMar's Raptors. Outside of the Nuggets' rotation, a pre-injury Isaiah Thomas scored 29 points (9-21 shooting) in 40 minutes for the 2017 Boston Celtics in an Eastern Conference Semifinal Game 7 win against the Washington Wizards. Trey Lyles was on the roster of the 2017 Utah Jazz who won a First Round Game 7 against the Los Angeles Clippers but Trey did not enter that game. And that's it. For most of Denver's core of young players who are playing in their very first playoff series, obviously tonight is going to be their first Game 7 experience. All told, the Spurs have 15 Game 7s under our belt (counting Pop's six) to the Nuggets four. Our players have logged 251 Game 7 minutes and scored 114 Game 7 points (led by DeMar's 120 minutes and 76 points). Denver's players have logged 96 Game 7 minutes and scored 48 Game 7 points (29 of those by Isaiah Thomas who is unlikely to see action tonight). When it comes to Game 7's, the San Antonio Spurs have a distinct experience advantage over the Denver Nuggets.

Unfortunately for us, the Nuggets have their own advantage tonight; this Game 7 is being played in Denver. Coming off of his monster 43 point, 12 rebound, and nine assist performance in a Game 6 losing effort, I'm sure Nicola Jokic is expecting to pick up right where he left off, this time with the luxury of a rowdy Pepsi Center crowd cheering him on. Much like Game 6, it may be part of Coach Pop's game plan to continue to allow the Joker to get his points but try to take away his cutters and shooters in order to throw Denver out of its offensive rhythm. Then again, the Michael Malone-tagged Bobby Fischer of basketball may attack the Nugget's king with a completely different strategy. Either way, the key to neutralizing Denver's homeport advantage is for us to slow down the pace, protect the ball, and (no matter how well Jokic plays carrying his team) limit the Nugget's fast break opportunities. I sat among the Denver fans last Tuesday during Game 5. There was a lot of nervous silence in the stands at the beginning of the game when we got out to a 9-4 lead. As soon as the Nuggets converted their first fast break and subsequently parlayed it into one of their lethal offensive blitzes the building erupted in noise and confidence. We can't allow that to happen again tonight. Instead, if we can limit fast break opportunities, the pressure and stakes of needing to rely on superior half court execution to prevail should weigh on Denver's young players and provide for a nervous rather than raucous Pepsi Center crowd. We need to set a tone that establishes the game will played at our pace from the opening tip tonight. Because we decisively control the experience advantage, the Nuggets may very well (in their lack of Game 7 experience) allow us to establish our pace. If they don't, we need to use our experience-advantage to force them into it because their home-court advantage becomes infinitely more powerful when they're allowed to get out and run. The crowd feeds off of pace and in return Denver plays better when they're able to feed off of the crowd. If we allow Denver to turn this into a track meet, we're probably in for a very long night. It's going to be interesting to see what ultimately wins out between our experience advantage and their home court advantage but because this is the first Game 7 for seven of the Nugget's nine rotation players compared to only four of our eight, I really like our chances to be the 29th team in league history to win Game 7 on the road.

The formula for completing the upset tonight and extending our season has three main ingredients. First, LaMarcus Aldridge needs to control the paint on both ends of the court the way Tim Duncan did in his first-ever Game 7. (You know, that one against the Pistons to win the 2005 title that we talked about earlier.) A trip to visit his former employer out in the Pacific Northwest is within reach and since I know that a trip down memory lane would be a lot of fun for LA, I'm confident he's going to rise to the challenge. The second ingredient is DeMar DeRozan using his series-high three Game 7s of experience to impose his will on the Denver Nuggets by attacking down hill, drawing fouls, and knocking down his patented turnaround jumpers. Despite being on a two-game Game 7 winning streak (and being the best player in both of those games), there is an existing narrative that DeMar DeRozan is a playoff choker. Most of that criticism comes from DeMar's Raptors repeatedly falling short against LeBron James, the game's greatest active player. So while, in my opinion, the narrative is unfair, but it exists nevertheless. Tonight, free of the pressure that comes with putting an entire nation on your back, DeMar can silence the choker narrative and cunningly pass it along to Denver's young superstars to see how they handle the annoyances that come with failing to meet expectations. After a season of getting to experience the competitiveness of Double D, I know he's preparing to do exactly that. Finally, there's Coach Pop. Nothing would be more Popiavellian (yes, with all respect due to Niccolò Machiavelli, I'm stealing this) than to devise a gameplay for tonight that steadily applies atmospheric pressure to Denver's playoff oxygen until it eventually evaporates into the Mile High air. The old ball coach has seen and prevailed in every imaginable situation (including this one) and has had an entire season now to teach his first Duncan-Parker-Ginobili-less group of players since the 1996-97 season that the key to playoff success is to continue pounding the rock until it breaks. Tonight, with the greatest coach of all-time manning the sideline, the #BlackAndSilver will have the formula for breaking the formidable Denver Nugget rock into a thousand tiny pebbles. And if we follow that formula with attention to detail, competitiveness and execution, we will get to savor in the experience of watching every single last pebble drop from the highest-elevated Rocky Mountain peak back down to earth like a rolling stone.

#GoSpursGo

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Four Saṃsāra

All Night - In his late-14th Century poem “Troilus and Criseyde,” Geoffrey Chaucer penned the phrase, “All good things must come to an end.” The poem is about the tragic love story of Troilus and Criseyde and is set against the Siege of Troy as a backdrop. As with every good thing that has come before, one could assume the love affair between the city of San Antonio and winning at the highest level in the NBA has finally come to an end against the backdrop of the Siege of Uncle Dennis. Coming into the 2018-19 season, many of the so-called experts were salivating with delight to make this assumption. There was a healthy trend among the handsomely paid prognosticator lot to pick the San Antonio Spurs to finish 9th, 10th, or even 11th in the Western Conference standings for the 2018-19 season. After all, more than a few of these so-called experts have already been predicting our demise for going on a decade or more now. You might think that year after year of being proven wrong time and time again might humble these so-called experts and perhaps even push them to feel the human emotions that we, the self-aware Homo sapiens, call embarrassment and shame. Unfortunately, should you think this, you'd eventually come to discover that our NBA prognosticator friends are callously devoid of these human emotions. As it turns out, being a so-called NBA expert requires one to suffer from a quite vicious personality disorder: talking-out-of-your-assicissism. Every season, something in the so-called NBA expert's gut tells him or her that this will be the year that the San Antonio Spurs run of sustained excellence will end and his or her ego implores him or her to make this prediction as loudly and flamboyantly as possible, evidence be damned. Isn't it funny how we never (ever ever ever) hear an acknowledgment of getting it wrong from the so-called NBA expert when the season ends and the Spurs have qualified for the postseason once again? In fairness, who has time to admit a mistake when you've got a busy schedule of cashing your lucrative "expert" checks and polishing your precious talking points so they're ready to be recycled for the next season. It is a little known fact that in every broadcast journalism program in the country a class is offered called "How to Be an NBA Expert For Dummies 101." In this class, future prognosticators are taught by their esteemed instructor Jeff Van Lundy (it's an online class, so yes, JVG teaches it everywhere) to take a lesson from the saying that Austrian writer Marie von Ebner-Eshenback is credited with penning: even a broken clock is right twice a day. This is surely sound advice for almost every NBA prognostication a future so-called expert will be asked to make during his or her career. Unfortunately for Van Gundy's students, there is one glaring exception. When it comes to the San Antonio Spurs run of sustained excellence and the so-called experts who cover us, the broken clocks are never right.If you're reading this and asking in your head, "But Ted, what about last season? The Spurs were merely first-round fodder for the eventual-champions. How does that count towards sustained excellence?" Of course we all remember when on April 25th of last year, the San Antonio Spurs were eliminated by the "gluttony of more" Golden State Warriors 99-91 in Game 5 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals. (The player of the game was LaMarcus Aldridge with a workman's 30 points, 12 rebounds, and four assists.) I would argue that the defeat came with a huge asterisks. For the first time since the Spurs drafted David Robinson in 1987, a Spurs franchise player put himself ahead of the team. And not only did this player put himself ahead of the team, make no mistake about it, he flat out quit on the team in mid-March. Setting aside for a moment the fact that Kawhi Leonard abandoned the franchise that helped develop him from a raw wing-defending prospect into an NBA superstar, San Antonio still won 47 games and entered the postseason with a roster (on paper) that was equipped to compete for a championship. Keep in mind that Stephen Curry was injured and ruled out for our first-round series against his Warriors. Now pick back up that Kawhi thing. Had the medically-cleared-to-play Leonard possessed the integrity and competitive spirit to set his aside his ego and instead earn his paycheck, the Spurs / Curry-less Warriors first round matchup would've been a toss up. Trust me, had Leonard played, there would've been a googolplex of Silicon Valley tech geeks sweating through their Kevin Durant Warriors jerseys so profusely, you'd've been able to see the purple bleeding through from the Kobe Bryant Lakers t-shirts they wear underneath. (Yes, this is descriptive writing calling out Warriors fans for being bandwagon converted Kobe-era Lakers fans.) The bottom-line? Had even a rusty Leonard chosen to play in the first round matchup with the Curry-less defending champion Warriors, I believe the Spurs win the series in 6. Last season's inability on the part of the Spurs to overcome being ghosted by Kawhi Leonard and consequently bowing out in the first round to the defending champs in five games is simply a bad luck break. When you field a championship-caliber roster every single damn season, you're going to have a few of those seasons end because of bad breaks. 2018 was no different than 2009 (when Manu was out for the playoffs due to injury) or 2000 (when Timmy was out for the playoffs due to injury). Sure, in this case, we were dealing with a pampered star who could've played and chose not to whereas those other players were stars because they were willing to give their left nut (in Manu's case, literally) for the opportunity to compete for a championship. But in the end, it's nearly impossible to legitimately compete for a ring when one of your best players misses the playoffs and effectively, that truth is what sealed our 2018 fate. This, friends, brings me full circle to my original point. SCORE BOARD ALERT: The San Antonio Spurs have been in title contention for over two decades and have booked the following results:

1998: 56 wins, Western Conference Semifinalists
1999: 37 wins, NBA Champions
2000: 53 wins, Western Conference Quarterfinalists
2001: 58 wins, Western Conference Finalists
2002: 58 wins, Western Conference Semifinalists
2003: 60 wins, NBA Champions
2004: 57 wins, Western Conference Semifinalists
2005: 59 wins, NBA Champions
2006: 63 wins, Western Conference Semifinalists
2007: 58 wins, NBA Champions
2008: 56 wins, Western Conference Finalists
2009: 54 wins, Western Conference Quarterfinalists
2010: 50 wins, Western Conference Semifinalists
2011: 61 wins, Western Conference Quarterfinalists
2012: 50 wins, Western Conference Finalists
2013: 58 wins, NBA Finalists
2014: 62 wins, NBA Champions
2015: 55 wins, Western Conference Quarterfinalists
2016: 67 wins, Western Conference Semifinalists
2017: 61 wins, Western Conference Finalists
2018: 47 wins, Western Conference Quarterfinalists
2019: 48 wins, To be determined...​

Somehow, we continue to defy Marie von Ebner-Eshenback's logic (which just so happens to be backed by the scientific laws of physics) that even a broken clock is right twice a day. The so-called NBA experts predict our demise year over year and year over year Coach Pop leads the Spurs back to the playoffs and makes them look foolish. With all deference to the wisdom in the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer, all good things mustn't come to an end. One good thing continues to persevere. The Spurs enter the 2019 NBA playoffs with a roster equipped and in position to make another deep postseason run. To tie a bow on this thought, I see the writings of Ebner-Eshenback and Chaucer and raise you the writings of the incomparable Mark Twain. Paraphrasing Twain, reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated.

* * *

Hello, Mr. Leonard. Can I call you Mr. Leonard? I know I used to call you Kawhi. But I used to think we were (Spurs) family. I also used to think you were the Chosen One. I used to believe in you so much, you're tagged in the Black & Silver blog series more times than Tim Duncan for Pop's sake. But that was then and this is now. Given what’s transpired, I feel much more comfortable calling you Mr. Leonard, if it’s all the same to you. Oh, and I fully plan to rectify the tagged-more-times-than-Timmy problem before the completion of the 2019 installment.

Think whatever you want about the way the Spurs handled your injury, the bottom line is that you quit on the team. As far as I’m concerned, your choice to abandon your team during the 2018 playoffs is a black mark on your career that will permanently be a part of your legacy. As far as I’m concerned, you can now never earn a place in the history books among the fiercest competitors, best players, or greatest champions. No matter how many accolades you rack or how much adulation is showered upon you moving forward by Raptors fans, or Clippers fans, or Lakers fans, you will always be remembered in my book as Kawhi Leonard: Quitter or Kawhitter for short. I know last time we spoke during the Golden State series, I defended your choice to err on the side of caution with your injury and sit out. What I’ve come to understand is that by late-March of 2018, I was already in the grieving process for coping with your betrayal but at the time of the Golden State series (late-April 2018), I did not know it yet because I was smack dab in the middle of the denial phase.I always knew that the Big Three era of Spurs basketball would eventually come to an end. But your decision to put yourself ahead of the team sure did have a way of ensuring that the end came with guillotine precision. Four-time Champion Tony Parker: signed to the Charlotte Hornets. Four-time champion Manu Ginobili: retired. God damn, Mr. Leonard. What, did you stop by and egg Tim Duncan’s house on your way out of town too?

There was so much I wanted to say to you after the trade last July. I was filled with so much anger, hurt, confusion over your betrayal I was ready to write a novel about it. Frankly, after reflecting on things for eight months now, I no longer feel you're worth the energy it would take me to spend 10,000 words excoriating you. Look, we have an NBA regular season of separation now from the divorce. Time and distance really do make a difference. I don’t know if I’ll ever really know your reasons for asking for the divorce and for as long as I live, I know I’ll occasionally circle back to ponder what might have been, what should have been had Zaza Pachulia not wrecklessy ended your 2016-17 season in Game 1 of the 2017 Western Conference Finals and set into motion this “Back to the Future Part II” alternate reality that has you playing the role of pampered superstar for another NBA franchise instead of continuing to accept the challenge of replacing Tim Duncan as the Black & Silver face of the franchise and raising more banners into the AT&T Center rafters. But time and distance have allowed me to really appreciate the fact that I get to watch DeMar DeRozan every single night. DeMar is one of the most electrifying scorers and playmakers to ever take the court in a Spurs uniform. From an entertainment standpoint, give me DeMar's silky-smooth 360 spin move to the rack that results in an improbable kick out to a wide-open shooter in the corner over your methodical, deliberate, tunnel-vision turnaround jumper every single day of the week. Of course Demar is not the defensive player that you were for us. I'm okay with that, though, because Derrick White and DeJounte Murray have the potential to be and when both of them finally have the opportunity to take the court together alongside DeMar, Aldridge, and Poeltl I'm happy with our chances to once-again field an elite defensive lineup for the 2019-20 season.

Anyway, I guess that's it, Mr. Leonard. I don't want to keep you. I'm sure Uncle Dennis has a New Balance commercial shoot he needs you to bring your personality-less personality and creepy Grandpa laugh to as soon as we wrap up. Oh wait, there he is now pulling back into the parking lot in his new 2020 limited-edition Mercedes Coattails 500. Man, that's a nice ride. He deserves it, though. He's put it a lot of long, hard, laborious hours converting you to the Dark Side of the Force. Closure really is a wonderful thing, isn't it, Mr. Leonard? You see how closure is allowing us to joke again? Look, you're even smiling. As much as I appreciate your smile...wait, please don't laugh. Save it for the New Balance commercial. Whew, that was a close call. In all seriousness, Mr. Leonard, thank you for your contribution to the San Antonio Spurs. Thanks for your role in raising that fifth championship banner into the AT&T Center rafters. I wish you nothing but the best of luck with the rest of your career (except against the San Antonio). Please tell Danny we miss him.​

* * *

Tim Duncan had brief flirtation with the Orlando Magic in the summer of 2000. I remember in my heart at the time, I didn’t think he would leave. Don’t get me wrong, I remember being scared shitless and a nervous wreck for several weeks, but deep down I believed unequivocally in his loyalty to my team and city. The day it was announced he was re-signing with San Antonio, I remember thinking, “there is no longer any doubt that he will be a Spur his entire career.” And, as it turned out, I never once had to go back and question that thought during the final sixteen years of Timmy's career.

There was a brief 48-hour period during the summer of 2016, when ex-Spurs assistant coach Brett Brown and his Philadelphia 76ers made a strong play to acquire Manu Ginobili with a massive two-year $30 million contract offer, that I was forced to entertain the idea that the most beloved Spur of all-time might not play his entire NBA career for the franchise. I remember not having to dig as deep as I did during Timmy’s 2000 free-agency to find the confidence to believe in Manu’s loyalty. In the end, as I expected, the Spurs ponied up some overdue extra cash to a legend who had been underpaid the previous year (a measly 2.8 million) and re-signed #20 to a one-year $14 million contract putting the uncomfortable contemplation of having to see Manu in another jersey to bed quickly. 48 hours of minimal doubt over the span of a 16-year career ain’t bad. You couldn’t ask for less discomfort.

Of the Spurs legendary “Big Three,” Tony Parker was the only one that forced me to regularly contemplate the idea of him taking the floor at the AT&T Center as a visitor at some point in his career. The “Tony Parker might not re-sign” rumors started as early as 2009. After losing in five games during the first round as the three-seed in the 09 Playoffs to the sixth seeded and rival Dallas Mavericks, Tony Parker started giving quotes about how the Spurs were no longer at a championship-caliber level. For the next three years, rumors swirled on San Antonio’s local sports talk radio about Tony jumping ship. From his initial comments until the unraveling of his marriage to actress Eva Longoria, the specific rumor was that Tony would eventually leave the Spurs to go play with Kobe Bryant out in Los Angeles for another hated-rival, the Lakers. Once he was divorced from Longoria and the Hollywood lifestyle, that rumor slowly faded but Tony continued to talk openly about eventually leaving the Spurs for another NBA club until the Spurs were rebuilt to go on another three-year-long championship hunt from 2012-14. After the Spurs were bounced in the first round of the 2015 playoffs in a hard-fought seven game slugfest of a series with the L.A. Clippers, Tony restarted public contemplation of ending his career for another NBA team and added a new wrinkle. He threw in the possibility of finishing his career playing professionally in his native France for the EuroLeague club he owns, Villeurbanne. Suffice it to say, of the Spurs’ “Big Thee,” Tony Parker is the one who, in regards to his legacy, seemed the least concerned about playing his entire career in Black & Silver.

The announcement on July 7th, 2018 that Tony Parker would sign a two-year $10 million deal with the Charlotte Hornets was not shocking, but it was still surprising and it coupled as utterly gut-wrenching. After 17 seasons at the helm of our ship, it was hard to imagine TP in another uniform. So yes, it was weird when the first photos of TP wearing Purple and Teal surfaced on Twitter. And yes, it was uncomfortable to watch him come off the bench at the Amway Center in Orlando on October 19th, 2018 and lay a goose egg on 0-5 shooting in 16 minutes for the Charlotte Hornets in his first NBA game not playing for San Antonio (he did have six assists, though). And, of course, it was flat-out weird to watch Tony return to the AT&T Center on January 14th to help his Hornets defeat our Spurs 108-93 with eight points and four assists in 19 minutes off the bench. All of this was tough. All of this was weird. But given the history of Tony speaking openly for a decade about the possibility of leaving the Spurs that's documented above, none of it was shocking.

As we struggled with the weirdness of Tony toiling away as a mentor and role player for a middling squad in the Eastern Conference, thankfully there was closure to be had and it came late in the season in the form of Manu Ginobili's jersey retirement ceremony. As luck would have it (or perhaps this was intentionally planned), the Spurs play the Hornets in Charlotte the game before Manu's jersey retirement night. With permission from the Hornets, Tony flew back to San Antonio from Charlotte on the Spurs' team plane to attend the ceremony. During the game, he was spotted sitting next to Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili in the stands. By the time Tony delivered his hilarious and fitting tribute to Manu during the ceremony, it felt as if he never left. In that moment, not only did I get closure from the weirdness of Tony Parker: Charlotte Hornets Back-Up Point Guard, I realized the deeper context driving the closure. TP's new identity as a journeyman is a technicality. Tony Parker is a Spur for life.In thinking about the quintessential Tony Parker moment, I remember too many dagger pull-up jumpers to seal a playoff win to name or count. The one play that seems to stand out was from Game One of the 2013 NBA Finals. Even though we ultimately did not win that series, the play epitomizes the craftiness, fearlessness, resilience, and perseverance that Parker played with throughout his entire 17-year Spurs career. I'm just going to leave the clip of that shot right here and end these reflections by saying, #MerciTony. 

* * *

It was about this time of year. I remember feeling hyped for the postseason. We were heading into the playoffs as the three seed but that was of no matter. After all, we had just one the title two years earlier from the very same position as a three seed. I got up on an early-April morning daydreaming about how we were about to be going on a tear back to the NBA Finals (and getting some Western Conference Finals revenge on the Los Angeles Lakers in the process) when I checked my phone only to discover that the top headline in the San Antonio Express-News was that Manu Ginobili would miss the playoffs due to injury. In an instant, right then and there, I knew we would not be making that tear back to the Finals. For all intents and purposes, the season was over. Sure enough, we were upset by the Dallas Mavericks in five games in the first round.If I could sum up Manu Ginobili in one word, it would be hope. As long as Manu Ginobili was suiting up for the San Antonio Spurs, I had hope that the last game of each season would end with the Black & Silver hoisting a trophy. Only the fiercest of the fierce competitors genuinely illicit hope on that level. The Larry Birds. The Michael Jordans. The Kobe Bryants. Manu Ginobili belongs right alongside these players on the pantheon of the NBA’s greatest competitors. Coach Pop expressed this exact sentiment in a video tribute that was played during Manu's jersey retirement ceremony on March 28th. No matter what the situation, no matter how big the odds stacked against us, as long as there was time left on the clock and Number 20 was on the court, Spurs fans could always bask in the eternal warmth of hope. There was always a chance because of Manu Ginobili's competitiveness.

I'll be honest, I'm feeling overwhelmed trying to write this Ginobili retirement piece and put into words what Manu has meant to me as a life-long Spurs fan. I summed Manu (the player) up in one word: hope. I'll respectively sum up my experience as a fan watching his entire NBA career in one word as well: joy. The competitiveness, the creativity, the basketball intellect, the relentless will to win; all such a joy to watch night after night, year after year. Reflecting on the fact that I no longer get to watch the most beloved Spur of all-time play basketball doesn't make me sad. I set out into my reflection thinking that it will but the instant a vision of Manu Euro-stepping through traffic to finish at the rim or Manu throwing a bounce pass to a cutter between his defender's legs appears in my mind, I become consumed with joy. There's no way around it. Every memory that I have of Manu playing basketball makes me happy. The way he played the game was so joyous, even in the past-tense there is simply no room for sadness. Every season. Every game. Every moment bring a smile to my face. None so more than this: 

I watched the aforementioned Manu Ginobii retirement ceremony from my hotel room at the Rome Cavalieri. I think there was something poetic and fitting about me getting to watch Number 20 go up into the AT&T Center rafters from Italy, the country Ginobili left (after playing two seasons's of professional basketball for Basket Viola Reggio Calabria) when he moved to San Antonio, Texas in 2002 to begin his NBA career. It was cool to celebrate the end of Manu's NBA journey from the place in which it began. I imagine Italy danced through Manu's mind more than a few times during that ceremony. When reflecting back upon a journey, it's only natural to think of its origin. The idea that Manu was peering back to Italy that night, peering back to the beginning, and I was able to experience Italy peering forward and back around the globe to reflect with him in San Antonio makes the notion of Manu's career cyclical and renders beginnings and ends obsolete. In other words, Manu's career is timeless and to be celebrated as a living, breathing fierce part of the present in perpetuity.

The game started at 1:30 am local time, so by the time the post-game retirement ceremony had concluded, it was almost time for the sun to rise over Rome. I figured Alba di Roma was something worth putting off a little extra sleep in order to experience so I decided to stay awake for it. I waited out on the terrace of my hotel room and watched as the colors slowly started rising from the silhouettes of the mountains behind the city. Out on that terrace, I watched the sun rise in all of its newness and spectacular beauty with my mind still on Manu and his career. I thought about the timelessness of Manu Ginobili the basketball player and how I will continue to experience his career body of work it in all of its newness and spectacular beauty for as long as I breathe (and probably beyond).Revisiting that terrace in Rome as I write these words todays brings me comfort and relieves me of the burden of feeling overwhelmed in writing this piece. I have forever to get my thoughts down on paper regarding Manu Ginboili's retirement and what his career meant to me and since all good things mustn't come to an end and the Spurs will continue making the playoffs forever, I'll have endless opportunities to revise these thoughts as part of the Black & Silver blog series. That being the case, let me end with this: #GraciasManu. It was an absolute privilege to watch you play basketball for my San Antonio Spurs de principio a fin.‬  ​

* * *

Alotta the so-called experts predicted the #BlackAndSilver to miss the playoffs. They never learn. The irony? Even if the "experts' pooled their money, bought the team, got rid of the current roster and made themselves the replacements, so long as Coach Pop is still manning the bench, he would still drag them to the playoffs. As I'm putting the finishing touches on this, one of the most important Black & Silver posts to-date, the San Antonio Spurs are preparing for Game 1 of our first round matchup for the 2019 NBA Playoffs, our NBA record-tying 22nd consecutive appearance in the postseason. More on that tomorrow. For now, it's clear that a lot of things have changed in San Antonio since I wrote One Nirvana 355 days ago. A lot has changed but one thing remains the same. The San Antonio Spurs are in the playoffs and (broken clocks beware) are a threat to win the title. Much like the sunrise or the brilliance of Manu Ginobili's career, the sustained excellence of the San Antonio Spurs is eternal. We've merely experiencing a Black & Silver: Reincarnation. All good things mustn't come to an end. Reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated.

#GoSpursGo

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Video Source: NBA on YouTube

Tres Triunfos

Let It Be - When I find myself in times of trouble, Manu Ginobili comes to me, bringing that grandpa juice, let it be. Welcome to the 2017 NBA Playoffs, Manu. In all sincerity, it really just wasn't the same without you. I had a sneaking suspicion all day yesterday, as I nervously awaited tip off, that you would arrive in Game 5. Because of this hunch, there was no controversy in deciding which jersey to put on in preparation for the game. I grabbed my silver (home alternate) Number 20 jersey (my go-to jersey during the 2014 title run) and put your name on my back so that I could have yours. Immediately after you checked into the game, I knew that you were back (pun intended) when, on your first touch, you drove hard to the cup for a score plus the foul and then walked to the free throw line with The Look in your eyes. I've written extensively about The Look in the past but I've honestly never been more relieved to see it than I was last night. You finished the game with 10 points (on 4-6 shooting), three assists, three steals, two rebounds and a block in 18 minutes. More importantly, you provided what Patty Mills coined that grandpa juice in setting an emotional tone early in the game that gave the #BlackAndSilver the edge we desperately needed in order to regain control in this hard-fought series. So, for the umpteenth time in your fifteen year Spurs career...thank you for saving the day, Manu. Despite all of the noise coming from "expert" land (you know, like allegations that you're retiring before our eyes), I never doubted for a second that you would deliver in this series. In fact, I guaranteed in my previous post that you'd give us a signature Manu performance against the Grizzlies (guarantees are not something I take lightly). And for the umpteenth time in my seven years blogging about the Spurs, you made me look good. By the way, all of that noise coming from "expert" land got awfully quiet in a hurry after Game 5. Considering that a mob of these "experts" had gathered outside of the AT&T Center yesterday evening before the game and was waiting patiently to pick apart your carcass like a committee of vultures, it must feel pretty good to be back to your hall-of-fame magical best. Keep it up, Manu. Vamos a necesitar con el fin de lograr nuestro objetivo. 

* * *

With Manu Ginobili serving as our emotional spark plug, the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 116-103 in Game 5 of the Western Conference First Round series last night in front of 18,418 bloodthirsty fans at the AT&T Center. Now that's was I'm talking about when I talk about the ear-piercing noise generated by Spurs fans during the first home game of Fiesta. When Manu drove to the basket late in the first quarter and completed the And 1 for his first points of the series, I could hear the home crowd blowing the roof off of the building all the way from my apartment in Denver, Colorado. (Full disclosure: the fact that I have a phenomenal surround sound system may have had something to do with this.) Man, it pains me to be so far away from the city during this time of year. There's nothing like being drunk and in the building sipping cerveza during a Fiesta playoff win in San Antonio. Once it hits your lips, it's so good. Trust me, I have 13 years of experience. As a longtime San Antonian, I can't wait to get back and experience it again for myself (hopefully in the not too distant future) but for now, I'll settle for soaking in victories like last night's by living vicariously through the inebriation of my former friends and neighbors.

Capitalizing on the massive home court advantage afforded us by a rowdy Fiesta crowd, the Spurs are now back in front in this emotionally-exhausting series, leading three games to two. With all deference to Manu's inspirational performance, the player of the game was Patty Mills. After Memphis went on a terrifying run to cut the (once 18 point) Spurs lead down to four with 9:29 left, Mills went bonkers hitting four threes in the frame to reopen a double-digit lead en route to his playoff career high of 20 points. To quote Spurs play-by-play announcer, Bill Lamb, "Good on ya, Patty!" Besides Manu's and Patty's, there were several other huge performances up and down the Spurs roster in Game 5. Particularly of note: Tony Parker's 16 points and 6 assists, LaMarcus Aldridge's 12 points and 9 rebounds, and David Lee's 11 points and 8 rebounds. Unfortunately, we somehow got next to nothing out of Kawhi Leonard. Just kidding. The Klaw was his usual dominant self, inflicting another 28 points (on an efficient 9-16 from the field, 3-5 from downtown, and 7-8 from the stripe) and six assists upon the Grizzlies punch-drunk perimeter defenders. If something looks off to you about those shooting numbers it is probably because for the first time in the series, Kawhi Leonard missed a free throw. After entering the game a perfect 40-40 from the line this postseason, Kahwi went ice cold by missing one of his eight free throws last night, dropping his series free throw percentage to .979. Somehow, I don't think Coach Pop is going to be benching him any time soon.

Speaking of Kawhi and looking ahead to Game 6, Thursday presents an opportunity for our small forward to take the next step in solidifying his place as the best basketball player in the world. Since he's already more than comfortable in his role replacing Tim Duncan as the franchise cornerstone, it is time for Kawhi to start doing some Tim Duncan-like postseason things. Namely, it's time for Kawhi to start taking the lead role in closing out hard-fought playoff series on the road. In his sixth NBA season, Leonard is roughly in the same place in his NBA career as Duncan was in 2003 (his sixth year in the league). During the 2003 NBA Playoffs, Timmy (coming off of back-to-back NBA MVP seasons) was fully established as the best player in the world at the time. During the 2017 NBA Playoffs, Kawhi still has a lot of people who need convincing that he's really that good. Playing like the 2003 version of Tim Duncan tomorrow night will be a good way to start silencing the doubters. During the 2003 NBA Playoffs, TD led the Spurs to win three consecutive Game 6 closeouts on the road. In the first round, Timmy had a triple-double in Game 6 leading the Spurs past Phoenix in Phoenix 87-85 to eliminate the Suns 4-2 (TD: 15 points, 20 rebounds, and 10 assists). In the Western Conference Semifinals, Timmy dominated the three-time defending champions in Game 6 leading the Spurs past Los Angeles in Los Angeles 110-82 to eliminate the Shaq-Kobe Lakers 4-2 (TD: 37 points, 16 rebounds, 4 assists). In the Western Conference Finals, Timmy overpowered an in-state rival in Game 6 leading the Spurs past Dallas in Dallas 90-78 to eliminate the Mavericks 4-2 (TD: 18 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks). The 2017 Memphis Grizzlies have proven to be a worthy adversary. They are completely capable of winning tomorrow night's contest at home and then coming back into our building on Saturday night with eyes on stealing the series. This is a perfect situation for Kawhi, like Tim Duncan before him, to gain the experience and accolades that come with battling through the adversity of a tough, emotional series only to rip the opponent's heart out in front of their home fans in the end (because that's what the great ones do).

While I haven't enjoyed the anxiety that this tough first round matchup with the Grit N' Grind Grizzlies has given me over the past two weeks, I'm really glad the Spurs did not sweep the first round of the playoffs. Why am I glad that we didn't get an easier first round opponent? The Spurs have never one a championship in a year where we swept the first round. 1999 (3-1 over Minnesota), 2003 (the aforementioned 4-2 over Phoenix), 2005 (4-1 over Denver), 2007 (4-1 over Denver again), and 2014 (4-3 over Dallas). Only through figuring out how to persevere through early playoff adversity did past Spurs teams (generally) and those teams' best player - Tim Duncan - (more specifically) achieve the mindset necessary to survive the later rounds and win a championship. In all five of the first round series mentioned above, the Spurs had to overcome the agony of losing a heartbreaker in the final minutes of an early series game (much like the Game 4 loss in this series on the Marc Gasol buzzer-beater) and dig deep within to find the necessary composure to right the ship. Kawhi Leonard and the 2017 San Antonio Spurs have an opportunity tomorrow night in Memphis, Tennessee to see another soul-wringing first round series through to it's completion. If Kawhi Leonard can deliver the same type of Game 6 road performance to close out a series that Tim Duncan was famous for (and that helped propel Number 21 to the upper echelons of basketball greatness), the Spurs could very well be off to the races in these 2017 playoffs. Easier said than done (Memphis is not going down without a fight) but if greatness was easy...every player would be Tim Duncan and every team would be the San Antonio Spurs. Kawhi Leonard has the talent to be the next Tim Duncan and these Spurs have the talent to be San Antonio's next championship team but the proof is in the pudding. Tomorrow night is going to be a dog fight. The challenge is right there in front of us and ripe for the taking. Tomorrow night, no matter how tough the conditions in the FedExForum and how resistant the opponent, all that matters is one playoff road closeout victory.

#GoSpursGo

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Featured Image Source: The Beatles Bible

Headline Image Source: The Kicker

Four Behind

Take the Power Back - I'd never spent that much time thinking about it. I never really needed to. His performance was too consistent, his presence too permanent. Few things in life were as reliable. Tim Duncan was the San Antonio Spurs and the San Antonio Spurs were Tim Duncan. It sounds so simple yet it's the simplest things that are the easiest to take for granted. Sure, the unthinkable briefly crossed my mind every now and again. An occasional wandering of thoughts is unavoidable. But those thoughts were always accompanied by distance. The type of distance that evokes flying cars or life on Mars. On the rarest of rare occasion that I pondered the end of Tim Duncan's career, it always felt sequestered. In fact, even after the flood of emotions that I experienced watching Timmy put one finger in the air as he left the court in Oklahoma City on May 12th, 2016, up until the morning of July 11th (the last hours of his status as an active NBA player) a part of me remained steadfast that his status would never change. Heading into the summer after dealing with the pain of our shocking second round playoff exit, I certainly expected Tim to return for a 20th season and at least one more run at a Jordan-tying sixth NBA championship. Perhaps for those couple of months that followed the 2015-16 season but preceded Timmy's announcement I resorted to denial as a tactic for ignoring the writing on the wall. here's no question that I had already spent years ignoring the inevitably of a pesky little truth called biological certainty. But given Duncan's stature in San Antonio and consistency on the court, what else was I supposed to do? I had nothing else to draw upon for the entirety of my adult life. Ever since the first moment I left my parent's home as a snot-nosed 18 year old college freshman, Tim Duncan has been a member of the San Antonio Spurs. In fact, Timmy and I both moved to San Antonio in the summer of 1997 (him to start his rookie season with the Spurs, me to attend Trinity University). In the 19 years that have come and gone since, I've moved away from San Antonio on three separate occasions (returning to live there again after the first two times I moved away). In 2004, I moved from San Antonio to Detroit. In 2006, I moved from San Antonio to Dallas. In 2014, I moved from San Antonio to Denver (Yes, I know I have a proclivity for moving from San Antonio to cities that start with the letter D). Timmy, on the other hand, has been in the Alamo City the entire time. Winning basketball games.

So yes, I'll admit it. I had not spent an adequate amount of time thinking about the end of Tim Duncan's basketball career to be prepared for his July announcement. I hadn't spent an adequate amount of time wondering what it would be like to watch his final game. Or where I would be when I watched it. Or how I would feel. I guess, given Timmy's personality and tendency to avoid the limelight, I assumed the possibility that I wouldn't even know for sure that I was watching his final game until after the fact. Like during Game 5 of the 2014 Finals, for example. The thought briefly crossed my mind that I could be watching Timmy's last game should he decide to follow in the footsteps of David Robinson by choosing to go out on top. Yet, even though the possibility crossed my mind, somehow I knew that the 2014 title wasn't the end. How could something so permanent as Tim Duncan's consistent greatness end? How could such overwhelming feelings of accomplishment and joy that accompanied Duncan raising a fifth NBA Championship Trophy be suddenly swapped out by the overwhelming feelings of loss and grief of a retirement announcement? In contrast, we knew prior to the 2002-03 season that it was going to be David Robinson's last year. So, having dealt with that reality in advance, the Spurs winning the title in his last game of his last year added to the sense of joy and accomplishment. Since it had been long assumed that Tim Duncan would not make any such announcement in advance of his retirement, it just seemed cruel to think that the devastating news of his retirement might come immediately on the heels of the joy of winning a title. That just wouldn't have fit his personality. Therefore, knowing that there would never be any advanced warning of Timmy's retirement, I was content to put the inevitable out of mind and blindly sip from the sweet nectar of eternal basketball life, year after year after year. In retrospect, perhaps I should have been thinking much more seriously about life after Tim Duncan. Perhaps I should have been preparing. Had I had the wisdom to not allow myself to be seduced by the mirage of permanency emanating off the horizon as I cheerfully trotted along my 19 year long Tim Duncan basketball journey, perhaps I would have been prepared for the violent swiftness with which such a journey ends and the next phase of life begins. One thing is for certain. I could have never imagined (during those wonderful years that I spent blissfully ignorant to the concept that the career of the greatest San Antonio Spurs player of all-time would eventually come to an end) where I would be on the day Timmy played his last game. I could have never imagined where the journey would end. I could have never imagined that as Tim Duncan's basketball career came to an abrupt end in early May on a Thursday night in Oklahoma City, I would be holed up watching him leave the court on a tiny television in a dreary hotel room in Boise, Idaho. 

* * *

It's rough to lose any playoff series. Losing a playoff series where two of the games were decided by questionable refereeing that benefited your opponent? That is particularly rough. Give them credit, though. Oklahoma City played well enough to win the series. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were phenomenal. But the #BlackAndSilver played well enough to win the series, as well. When two teams are that evenly matched, it is extremely disappointing to have officiating mistakes be the difference maker in who advances and who goes home. We should look very seriously at putting in place more safeguards to prevent official error from deciding NBA playoff games because mistakes of that magnitude not only affect the outcome of one game or series, they can potentially create a ripple effect that shifts the course of future NBA events for years to come. Had the two games where refereeing played a factor in the outcome broke our way instead, San Antonio probably wins the series 4-1 in five games and the landscape-altering NBA off-season that followed the 2016 NBA Playoffs may have played out quite differently. Maybe Kevin Durant makes a different free agency decision if his Thunder had lost in the Western Semis instead of blowing a 3-1 lead against the defending champs in the Conference Finals? Maybe the James-Irving-Love Cavaliers get broken up if they don't have an end to their season that is so storybook...you'd be hard-pressed to find a fiction writer who could have done a better job writing it? Maybe Timmy makes a different decision on his retirement if he had gotten closer to tasting or had even tasted his sixth NBA championship? Maybe he doesn't lift that one finger in the air while walking off the court at the Chesapeake Energy arena after Game 6?

Unfortunately, what ifs are what ifs for a reason. In this case, the reason is that no amount of protesting the karmic injustice can change the fact that official error did indeed rear its ugly head and factored massively into deciding Tim Duncan's final playoff series. There is no redemption to be had so what we are left with is the now iconic image of Timmy lifting that one finger in the air while walking off the court after Game 6. It's only fitting that Tim Duncan is the player of the game for his final game. This is not just a ceremonial selection. TD was legitimately the best Spur on the court, logging 19 points (7-14 from the field, 5-6 from the line) and 5 rebounds in his final 34 minute NBA run. Accompanying him during many of his most effective minutes of the game was fellow 40 year old, Andre Miller. Miller only played 9 minutes, but he played those 9 minutes with Timmy and dulled out 4 assists. The pair were so in sync during a brief stretch in the fourth quarter, they sparked a Spurs run that culminated in a Danny Green free throw that cut the Thunder lead to 11 with 3:45 left in the game. Given that we were blown out of the water in the second quarter and faced a deficit as large as 27 points midway through the third, obviously the overwhelming statistical probability suggested that it was too little, too late. Still, it was nice to watch the old guys lead a comeback that was meaningful and for a brief second even made me believe. That glimmer of hope was short lived, however, because after Russel Westbrook drained a three pointer with 2:25 left in the game to extend the lead back up to 14 at 104-90, it became brutally apparent that the Tim Duncan - Andre Miller led comeback was going to come up short. Nevertheless, classy as ever, Coach Pop (perhaps knowing something we didn't, perhaps just sensing the possibility of the moment) kept Tim Duncan in the game until the bitter end, playing him every second of the fourth quarter.

It's funny how, like a chameleon, a moment can be colored differently depending on the context in which it is viewed. On Thursday, May 12, 2016, the Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the San Antonio Spurs 113-99 in Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals to win the series 4-2. While this series will be remembered as the last playoff series that the greatest Spurs player of all-time lost in his career, it should also be remembered as the last playoff series that Kevin Durant won for Oklahoma City before abdicating his opportunity to become the greatest Supersonic/Thunder player of all time. Sure, Kevin Durant decision to join the Golden State Warriors on Independence Day was his alone to make and I'm happy for him and his family if the decision yields fulfillment in his personal life. But coming from the perspective of a basketball historian, in my opinion, Kevin Durant's decision was the equivalent of strapping a suicide bomb to his legacy as a basketball player and pressing the trigger button. Sure, great players have switched teams in free agency before but joining a team that won an NBA record 73 games in the previous regular season and then went on to defeat the only team you have ever played for in the Western Conference Finals in a series that your team was up 3-1 and should have closed out? Unprecedented. With this decision, Kevin Durant gave away his opportunity to reach the level of greatness that could have one day put him in the conversation with the likes of a Tim Duncan. There is no shortcut for leading the NBA team that drafted you to the NBA mountaintop. It bestows upon a player a level of greatness that cannot be obtained by a player who wins a title after joining a ready-made NBA championship quality team in free agency. If Durant leads the Warriors to an NBA title or two, so what? They were already capable of winning NBA titles without him. Similarly, the Golden State Warriors (as a franchise) have relinquished their opportunity to enjoy the fruits of building a dynastic program from the ground up like Tim Duncan's Spurs before them. Any more titles that the Warriors can add to the one they've already won won't get to go in the same category. The first one was the work of a homegrown champion but, by adding Kevin Durant, there can now never be a homegrown dynasty. Any more championships they earn will be accumulated in the category of work done by a super team. In my opinion, any future Kevin Durant era Warriors titles will never carry with them the same authenticity of the first pre-Durant Warriors title.

Back to Durant's legacy as an individual player, the bottom line is that delivering one championship trophy to the Oklahoma City Thunder would have been more valuable than whatever number he ends up winning in Golden State. I mention all of this not to turn my Tim Duncan retirement piece into an anti-Kevin du-RANT (get it?). Rather, I mention Duran't decision as a point of comparison to underscore the scarcity of greatness on the magnitude of what Tim Duncan has been able to accomplish. Case in point, LeBron James. We just finished watching The King complete a challenge that (after taking a similar path of less resistance as Durant by choosing to chase championships in Miami for four years) was his only pathway back into the conversation of greatness on the level of a Tim Duncan. James' deliverance of a championship to the franchise, the hometown, the state he had abandoned five years earlier was a legacy-changing accomplishment. It was an unorthodox path, but he eventually delivered for the franchise that drafted him. Who knows, perhaps Kevin Durant will one day return to the Oklahoma City Thunder and follow in LeBron's footsteps to find a path back to true greatness but that seems very unlikely, at this point. While LeBron's latest heroics, indeed, elevated him back into the conversation of true greatness, it must also be mentioned that it took Cleveland landing three number one overall draft picks during his four year abandonment to give the team enough assets for LeBron to have the talent around him to deliver on that opportunity for greatness. Tim Duncan, in comparison, just kept grinding and pounding and building and winning for his program for nineteen years straight. Unlike KD, LeBron is still in the hunt but Tim Duncan's legacy is still significantly ahead. 

* * *

It was the 2003 NBA Playoffs. 98.5 The Beat held a promotion that year during San Antonio's postseason run soliciting Spurs themed songs from local artists to play on air. As huge Spurs fans, who happened to also be dope emcees, we thought that a submission could be a good opportunity to get some name recognition for our band in advance of the 2004 release of our debut studio album. After the Spurs eliminated the three-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals, the entire city was lit. If you weren't there to experience it, you can probably imagine the swagger emanating out of little ole San Antone when we were the city who ended Hollywood's Shaq-Kobe dynasty. It was infectious, one of the best energies the city's ever produced. So, like any respectable artists would, we harnessed our share of it by getting in the lab.We recorded Hate Us Now [Spurs Remix] on a Saturday afternoon in late May. The following Monday, we dropped off a CD copy of the track at the radio station and promptly returned to going about our business. A couple of days later, it happened. I was flipping through the radio dial when I realized that 98.5 The Beat was playing our song. I called up Brian to let him know, he turned it on as well and we both proceeded to freak out with excitement. There's a brilliant scene in the movie That Thing You Do which magnificently captures the unadulterated joy an artist feels in the moment she/he first discovers that her/his music is playing on the radio. In the scene, the bandmates jump for joy in the appliance store owned by the drummer's family as their song first plays. This scene perfectly captures our experience. I suspect it perfectly captures the experience of many artists.As you can probably guess, after first hearing our Spurs cut on the radio, we kept our ears glued to the station. A couple of hours later, they played it again. This continued for a couple of weeks. We were ecstatic. It was the first time a Rhime Divine track had ever received what we considered real radio play. Sure, we had gotten some stuff on air a few times before on college radio. But this was The Beat. You see, in little ole San Antone, 98.5 was the big league for local hip hop artists. Being on their airwaves was validating. It proved to be an important stepping stone in our development as artists. By the time that summer was in full swing, with a song in rotation on local radio and our beloved Spurs marching towards the NBA Finals, Brian and I were on Cloud Nine. On June 4, we attended Game One of the 2003 NBA Finals at the SBC Center in San Antonio. We were in the building to witness Tim Duncan's first act in one of the most dominant individual performances in NBA Finals history. TD's performance was so dominant in that series, he would go on to cap it off with a damn near quadruple-double (21 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists, and 8 blocks) in Game 6 to close out the New Jersey Nets. Duncan, coming off back-to-back MVP seasons, delivered San Antonio our second championship that June. With Tim Duncan dominating the NBA and with a Rhime Divine track on the airwaves contributing to the soundtrack for a city, man...that was a good summer.

At a short press conference held at the Spurs practice facility to honor Tim Duncan on Tuesday, July 12th (the day after Timmy's retirement announcement), Gregg Popovich spoke about all of the people who had opportunity created for them because of the greatness of Tim Duncan. Coach Pop talked about all of the players, coaches, front office staffers, journalists, and so on who owe much of the opportunity they found for themselves in little ole San Antone to the greatness of TD. I'm not sure if he's aware of it, but Coach Pop can add a generation of local San Antonio hip hop artists to the list of people who had opportunity created for them because of Tim Duncan's greatness. After the 2003 Spurs song submission campaign was so successful, 98.5 The Beat decided to make it an annual tradition and kept it going for many years after. Because of Tim Duncan's greatness, the San Antonio Spurs were perennial title contenders for 19 years straight. The Beat's Spurs song submission campaign would not have been sustainable, year after year, if the Spurs weren't always in the playoffs making noise and in the hunt for championships. Because of Tim Duncan's greatness, a generation of San Antonio's local hip hop artists got to experience what it feels like to have a song get that coveted real radio play. Dozens of artists over the years felt the euphoria of landing the radio dial on their own song for the first time because of Tim Duncan. Those opportunities only came about because of his greatness.

Tim Duncan is my favorite athlete of all-time and that will never change. Brian was always a Manu Ginobili guy but (as a Spurs fan) he obviously also loved Tim Duncan. Had he still been with us, I suspect Brian would have gotten as much enjoyment out of watching the end of TD's career as I have. Perhaps he did from a different vantage point. Duncan's announcement this past July was rough. It's been really hard to say goodbye. Timmy, from one artist to another, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for the countless memories. Thank you for the championships. And thank you for giving Rhime Divine our first radio play and our That Thing You Do moment. 

* * *

I didn't get to see the first half of Game 6 of the 2016 Western Conference Semifinals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs. I was obligated to settle for streaming the audio through NBA League Pass as I drove around Boise, Idaho conducting home visits as part of the union campaign I was in town to work on. Now having obtained the convenience of hindsight, I could have never imagined that instead of watching Tim Duncan's final game in undistracted solitude, I would find myself at the mercy of a situation where it was necessary for the viewing of my beloved Spurs in a playoff game to take a back seat to my obligations in the real world. As referenced earlier, I also could have never imagined that I would be in Boise, Idaho (of all places) while Timmy played his final game in the NBA. Even though I didn't know at the time that this would end up being his final game, the entire episode of being in Boise working rather than at home watching the game just felt weird and wrong. Perhaps it was my subconscious sensing trouble on the horizon but something just felt off about the game and the environment I was experiencing it in almost immediately following hearing the opening tip on the radio. As Oklahoma City exploded to a 24 point lead by halftime, I felt completely vulnerable listening along while I drove from house to house conducting my home visits. There is an extra level of helplessness I always feel when listening to the Spurs on the radio instead of watching the game on television. But in a game of the magnitude of an elimination playoff game? That feeling of helplessness was excruciating. By the time that I completed my work and was able to rush back to my hotel room, the third quarter was already underway and (one valiant Spurs comeback attempt not withstanding) the writing was already on the wall.

As the final buzzer sounded in OKC's victory eliminating the Spurs, just like Coach Pop, ESPN (who was broadcasting the game) must have sensed the possibility of the moment. The network brilliantly kept their cameras locked on Tim Duncan from the second that the clock turned to zeroes until the second that Timmy finally receded into the tunnel and out of sight of the cameras. Considering that Tim Duncan had given no indication prior to the game (one way or the other) regarding his possible retirement, the fact that Coach Pop felt compelled to play him the entire fourth quarter and that ESPN felt compelled to leave their cameras transfixed on him just in case it was his last game during a moment also significant for the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise, is a testament to Tim Duncan's enormous stature in the game of basketball. As I watched the end of the game on that tiny television in my hotel room in Boise, Idaho, it dawned on me that this moment felt different than all of the end of season moments that had come before. ESPN's cameras stayed locked on Timmy just in case it was the last time one of the greatest basketball players of all-time walked off of an NBA court. Inexplicably, tears started welling up in my eyes as transfixed, I watched my favorite player of all time dutifully congratulate his opponents and then walk stoically towards the tunnel. Of course, I still didn't know it at the time but that tunnel may as well have been the history books. When Timmy somberly lifted the single finger in the air as he approached the tunnel to acknowledge the classy OKC fans who were paying tribute to him, I must concede that in the moment, the gesture had a haunting sense of finality to it. I was so overcome with emotion as, for the first time, I truly felt the weight of the certainty that Tim Duncan's career, like all the careers of great players before his, would eventually end and may in fact have already ended. As I sat helplessly staring at the tiny television in my Boise hotel room, I knew that there was nothing to do but wait for several weeks to find out if this visceral outpouring of emotion that was washing over me was going to be validated by a retirement announcement. As the broadcast came to its conclusion, with Tim Duncan tucked away in the recesses of a Chesapeake Energy Arena locker room, not knowing what else to do, I turned off the faucet of emotions, buried my head back in the sand of believing that Tim Duncan's career would never come to an end, and got in my car and drove to the union office to get back to work. 

* * *

This Black & Silver blog series began back in 2011 with a post making the argument that Tim Duncan is the greatest player in the post-Jordan era. This summer upon announcing his retirement, Timmy left the game of basketball with that legacy in tact. With five NBA titles to Shaquille O'Neal's four, Duncan has the upper hand in that head to head. While tied with Kobe Bryant at five rings a piece, Timmy still edges out Kobe with three Finals MVPs to Kobe's two and two League MVPs to Kobe's one. After delivering a title to his native state of Ohio and the Cleveland Cavaliers (his third overall), LeBron James is certainly nipping at Tim's heels. Given LeBron's four League MVPs and astonishing seven trips to the NBA Finals (including six straight), an argument could be made to rank James ahead of Duncan should he ever secure a Duncan-tying fifth NBA Championship. While he already has three titles under his belt, LeBron still has a lot work to do to win two more. But if LeBron should eventually pass by Duncan, then Timmy will have to settle for being the greatest player of a generation. And in the annals of NBA history, that is not a shabby place to wind up.

As disappointing as the news was that Tim won't be joining his comrades in battle for a twentieth NBA campaign, his retirement does usher in an exciting new chapter of Spurs basketball. Should we be able to secure a sixth NBA championship trophy down in Titletown, TX, we would seize with it our opportunity to surpass the Chicago Bulls as the third most decorated franchise in NBA history. While the two franchises would be tied at sixth titles a piece, the difference that would give the Spurs the edge over Chicago is that we would have been able to win a title beyond the era of one transformational player. Having Michael Jordan involved in all six Chicago titles, the Bulls haven't been able to do that. Only the Celtics and Lakers have had multiple dynastic eras. This is the challenge ahead of Kawhi Leonard and company. Kawhi now has the opportunity to lead his team to a championship as the Spurs' post-Duncan era franchise player. Should he be able to accomplish this feat, Kawhi will start the long journey of building a legacy for himself that will never surpass but could ultimately rival the incredible legacy of the franchise player that came before him. I think Kawhi Leonard is driven to accept this challenge and to persevere. Only time will tell but one thing is for certain. Tim Duncan will be behind the scenes supporting him and cheering him on during every step of the journey.In the end, July 11th, 2016 was certainly a rough day. Once the news started hitting social media, I remember just sitting at my computer in a fog for the better part of an hour trying to wrap my head around the idea that an era of my life had just come to an end. Tim Duncan's retirement was a tough thing for me to wrap my head around. It felt horrible to know that the most consistent part of my adult life, having my favorite basketball player suiting up for my favorite basketball team was suddenly over. The overwhelming shower of emotions that I had briefly experienced as Tim Duncan put that finger in the air while leaving the court after Game 6 violently returned and this time, something as simple as returning back to work was not going to allow me to shake them. In the weeks that have followed the announcement, I've tried to focus on the positive memories from Timmy's career but I can't help it, I'd be lying if I tried to tell you that I haven't been in a funk all summer. Those emotions are still there and they are still raw. I really, really wanted one more year to say goodbye. I really, really wanted Tim Duncan to find a way to win that mystical Jordan-tying sixth championship. And even though I know that it isn't his style, I really, really wanted Tim Duncan to have the proverbial NBA legend's farewell tour. This sucks. Tim Duncan will always be my favorite athlete of all time. He was the best. 

* * *

I had a dream the other night. It was a great dream. It was the first game of the 2016-17 San Antonio Spurs season. I was staying late at work phone banking union households for the election, which prevented me from being home in my favorite spot on the couch ready to go at tip-off of Spurs vs. Warriors. When I eventually arrived home and turned on the game, it was about three minutes into the first quarter. Almost immediately after turning on the game, I noticed something that at first seemed mundane but quickly became astonishing. Right when I turned on the game, I saw Tim Duncan was dropping back to defend Steph Curry as the reigning MVP dove toward the rim coming off a pick set by Draymond Green. Timmy extended his arms (without jumping) and blocked Curry's layup attempt almost as soon as he started raising into the shot. After blocking the shot, Duncan grabbed the ball and fired it over to Tony Parker before embarking on a mad dash down the court. As the teams exchanged ends, Tony flipped the ball over to Kawhi Leonard on the wing as Timmy sealed Draymond behind him down in the low block. Timmy then proceeded to signal for the ball, catch the post entry from Kawhi Leonard, rise up into Green's outstretched arms, absorb the contact, finish off of the backboard as the whistle blew to indicate a foul, and then stoically walked to the foul line to shoot a free throw. After witnessing this quintessential Tim Duncan moment, I grabbed my phone frantically and went to the ESPN.com homepage to, sure enough, find the headline article stating, "At the last minute, San Antonio Spurs Future Hall-of-Famer Tim Duncan decides to un-retire." I was overcome with joy for a moment until I was suddenly jarred from my sleep. When I realized that I had been sleeping, it was one of those "damn, it was only a dream" moments. Those moment are the worst. After realizing that it was a dream, I tried to fall right back to sleep in the hopes that I could re-enter my dream. It was so sweet I just didn't want it to be over. It was of no use as the dream had vanished and the reality of Timmy's retirement sunk back in. I have a sneaking suspicion that my dream was not a premonition soon to come to fruition this coming Tuesday evening. I have a sneaking suspicion that from now on, San Antonio will never ever see a four behind the screen and roll protecting the paint with a flat-footed block and then running the court in order to get in the proper position to devastate an opponent in the post the way that Tim Duncan did for 19 extraordinary seasons. It seems that seeing Tim Duncan play another basketball game in the NBA will now and forever happen only in dreams. But for the rest of the time that I'm awake, I know that I am blessed to have enough memories to last a lifetime. Thank you, Tim Duncan.‪

#GoSpursGo #ThanksYouTD

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Featured Image Source: San Antonio Express-News

Four Back

A Sky Full of Stars - Give hime credit. Chris Paul hit the shot of his life. The ball left his hand and passed by Tim Duncan's finger tips (as the greatest active basketball player on the planet was closing quickly to block it) by the width of a piece of paper, but somehow it got by. The rejection of not only a basketball shot but also of Chris Paul as a clutch playoff performer was avoided as the ball amazingly slipped by Duncan's fingers. It floated softly towards the backboard, bounced off, and dropped down through the net. One home cooked scorer's table error and one Hail Mary inbounds attempt later, our season was over. Yes, the Spurs should have never been in that position. (We should have closed out at home in six.) Yes, San Antonio should have played smarter basketball down the stretch. (We should have protected our precious lead better late in the fourth quarter.) Yes, the Clippers's scorers table screwed us out of running the play that could have gotten one of our shooters a final look at a three pointer to win the series. (If we get a clean look at a three in the final second, we would have buried it and the Clippers along with it.) Yes, two of the best four teams in the league should have never been playing in the first round to begin with. (If we had played an easier first round opponent, we probably would have been sharper and healthier by the time we met an opponent of the Clippers caliber in the conference semi-finals.) But give him credit. Chris Paul hit the shot of his life.

Unfortunately, this meant that (when I first started writing this three months ago) I was begrudgingly tasked with needing to report that the Los Angeles Clippers had advanced past the San Antonio Spurs. In typical Black & Silver fashion, (rather than simply ripping the band-aid off) I once again elected to take my precious, sweet time in finishing the last post of the season. Despite the fact that it is still hard to wrap my brain around twelve weeks later, the Clippers did indeed outlast the Spurs 111-109 in Game 7 of the Western Conference First Round series. The player of the game for the Spurs was the incomparable Tim Duncan who (at 39 years old) came up huge in a big playoff game for the billionth time in his career. Timmy amassed 27 points and 11 rebounds to put the Spurs one possession away from winning a second Game 7 on the road against a Chris Paul led opponent (they beat the New Orleans Hornets in Game 7 of the 2008 Western Conference Semi-Finals in New Orleans). In 117 Game 7s played in NBA history prior to this series, the road team has won only 24 times (21 percent). The Spurs faced a tall order attempting to do it for a second time in eight seasons. It makes it that much more painful to swallow when considering that we came so close but couldn't finish off becoming the 25th team to climb that mountain. Oh, and did we ever have our chances? With 5:28 left in the game, San Antonio had a five point lead. This possession in the game is burned into my permanent memory. Chris Paul missed an 18 foot jumper and Tony Parker came up with the long rebound and sprinted down to get a fast break layup with only Chris Paul to beat. A healthy Tony easily extends the lead to seven in that situation but unfortunately that was not the player that was pushing a one man fast break in the guts of the biggest game of the season. The hobbled Tony that was playing that night lost the ball out of bounds and within 28 seconds, the Clippers had scored five straight to tie the game. It was a dogfight from there. Had Tony pulled back in that moment, ran some clock, and set up an offensive set, perhaps the outcome of the series would have been different. And there it is...the tortuous dissection of what could have been. After a year's reprieve, Spurs fans like myself had once again been sentenced to a summer of what ifs with the ghosts of another playoff run cut short haunting our waking life and our dreams alike. Down the rabbit hole we go.

Were the Spurs good enough to win a championship this year? I think so. I know that the Golden State Warriors were counting their blessings when the Clippers ensured that Dub Nation would not have to face the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals. San Antonio was the only team in the league to win the season series with Golden State and in my opinion they were the team best equipped to upset the Warriors in the 2015 playoffs. There is not a perimeter defensive tandem in the league that had more capacity to lock up Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson than Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green. These two perimeter defenders are special as a tandem. With a few more years playing together, they could very easily prove to be the best defensive duo at the shooting guard and small forward position to play together since Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Should Danny and Kawhi have gotten their shot to go up against Curry and Thompson in the Western Conference Finals, even with all the other injuries the Spurs were playing through I believe that we would have had a 50/50 chance to win the series. Had the Spurs had had the opportunity to defend their championship healthy, there is no doubt in my mind that the Warriors would not have had the necessary experience to dethrone us. Nonetheless, San Antonio was not healthy and did not hold up our end of the bargain. Perhaps we will get our shot at the Golden State Warriors in next season's playoffs, but until then...they are the champs. Despite my strong feelings on how a hypothetical Spurs vs. Warriors 2015 Western Conference Finals would have turned out, I take nothing away from Dub Nation. Golden State earned their championship and should be congratulated.

They should enjoy it too. Steph Curry, Steve Kerr and company will soon find that defending an NBA title is an entirely different proposition than winning the first one. Repeating is never easy, but it seems it will be unusually difficult next year when you peer out over this summer's post-free agency NBA landscape. Cleveland will be better than last year just by getting healthy and also by adding back court depth with their Mo Williams signing. The Clippers have improved by adding Paul Pierce and Lance Stephenson and because the organization collectively sent DeAndre Jordan a Check Yes or No note to ask him to freeze out his new girlfriend, Mark Cuban, and meet up in the middle school cafeteria to get back together. Memphis is still Memphis, ever present...lurking in the weeds. Houston kept most of its core together to remain a fringe contender. And then there is the #BlackAndSilver. I spent the first part of my summer hoping that the greatest shot of Chris Paul's life wouldn't turn out to be the final sentence in the final chapter of one of the greatest storybook runs in the history of professional sports. My fear that the Big Four (Gregg Popovich, Time Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili) had participated in their final NBA basketball game together was not only terrifying but it was also legitimate. Worst case scenario: Pop, Timmy, and Manu retire leaving Tony and probably Kawhi to lead a (Danny Green-less) fringe playoff squad coached by Ettore Messina.In full disclosure, I wasn't actually worried about this doomsday scenario. I was fairly confident that Coach Pop and Tim Duncan were coming back but I was petrified that the Big Four era would end upon the announcement of Manu's retirement. Under this scenario, even if we had re-signed Danny, the Spurs would have been a lock for a playoff spot but probably not a championship contender. Another likely scenario is that the Spurs could have brought the 2014 title team back together for one more run since injuries derailed our title defense last season. Had this happened we would have still been a fringe title contender but probably not one of the favorites. There was also a dream scenario for this off-season. A scenario so rapturous, it seemed preposterous to even contemplate. Therefore, I dared not even fantasize about the perfect off-season during May and June, but then July rolled around. Sometimes life is but a dream, because (and pinch me if this isn't real and I need to wake up) this actually happened... 

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Yahoo Sources: Kawhi Leonard, Spurs agree to framework of a maximum contract extension. http://t.co/f1738GRRli

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) July 1, 2015

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Looks like I'm back for four more years SA!!! #210

— Danny Green (@DGreen_14) July 1, 2015

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Straight from Tim Duncan: "I'll be on the court next year" ... story coming soon on http://t.co/LMDPrVQ6z4

— Mike Monroe (@Monroe_SA) July 2, 2015

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I'm happy to say I'm going home to Texas and will be a Spur!! I'm excited to join the team and be close to my family and friends.

— Lamarcus Aldridge (@aldridge_12) July 4, 2015

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ESPN sources say that Gregg Popovich, as of now, is intent on coaching out his entire five-year contract that he signed last summer

— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) July 4, 2015

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Happy to announce that I'm coming back next season. #gospursgo#TDwouldvemissedmetoomuch.

— Manu Ginobili (@manuginobili) July 6, 2015

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Free agent forward David West has agreed to terms with the Spurs, per league sources.

— David Aldridge (@daldridgetnt) July 6, 2015

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You've gotta love summertime. The addition of LaMarcus Aldridge and David West combined with the resigning of Timmy, Manu, Kawhi, and Danny plus the commitment of Pop to keep coaching equals the execution of an offseason perfected. It is almost not fair. Almost. Not only are we still title contenders but the Spurs perfect offseason has elevated Black & Silver: Reloaded to title favorites. With Aldridge and West, San Antonio won on the free agency market for the first time in franchise history. As important as it is to build a bridge to the post-Duncan era, I am most excited that these signings have added fire power for The Big Four to write another chapter in fairy tale that refuses to end. These historic figures still have one extraordinary epilogue in them which they will collaborate to write. There is no question that Gregg Popovich, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker have at least one more run left in them as a group. SIX in SIX-teen has a mighty fine ring to it, don't you think? Thankfully, in the end, Chris Paul's shot has proven to have just ruined a season rather than killed a dynasty. I'll be spending the rest of my summer counting my blessings that we got all four back. And then some.

#GoSpursGo

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Featured Image Source: Mustark on Tumblr

Headline Image Source: Sports Illustrated

Three Forward

Over - I'm living life right now, man, and this what I'mma do 'til it's over...'til it's over. It's far from over. In One Back (my first blog post of these 2015 playoffs), I predicted that "there are going to be moments of panic and moments of doubt for Spurs fans" during this title defense journey. Man, I wasn't lying. Last night was intense. I have never been to Disneyland, but somehow I feel like I've become a regular visitor after enduring a second roller coaster ride out in Los Angeles in less than a week. My emotions swung back and forth so many times last night that I'm not entirely convinced in the accuracy of what I'm about to report, but somehow, someway the San Antonio Spurs outlasted the Los Angeles Clippers 111-107 at the Staples Center yesterday in Game 5 of the Western Conference First Round series to take a 3-2 lead and put the Clips on the brink of elimination. They say that football is a game of inches. Apparently basketball can be a game of millimeters. There is no question that Bill Kennedy and crew made the correct call in disallowing the tip-in by DeAndre Jordan of a Blake Griffin shot as the ball hung above the cylinder during an opportunity for the Clippers to take a 109-108 lead with 4.7 seconds left in the game, but let's be honest...that was a lucky break for the Spurs. Both teams played determined, focused basketball and both teams were equally brilliant in last night's game. We could just as easily have been the team to catch a bad bounce that would have resulted in us being the ones feeling the heartbreak that comes with facing elimination in a close series. Luck was certainly on our side last night. Having said that, we have absolutely nothing to apologize for. Luck is a part of the equation when two evenly-matched opponents square off. It always has been and it always will be. In the end, luck has a funny way of gravitating to the more deserving team. After squandering the home court advantage that we stole on our last trip to Cali in an uninspired Game 4 performance, the Spurs regrouped and earned the opportunity to be in a position for luck to help us steal it right back in last night's gritty Game 5 escape. It takes remarkable composure to play that well in that environment in that situation. We earned the victory and we earned the opportunity to finish off this series at home. On Thursday night, let's hope we are ready to capitalize on the remarkable opportunity that we earned last night (more on that later).

Okay, campers, rise and shine, and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today. It's coooold out there every day. The player of the game last night was Tim Duncan. What else is there to say about the old man? He never ceases to amaze. Timmy (continuing to upstage Bill Murray in his ongoing portrayal of the Phil Connors character from Groundhog Day) came up huge with a monster 21 points (8-13 from the field, 5-6 from the line), 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and an enormous blocked shot in the guts of the game. With 59 seconds remaining and San Antonio clinging to a 107-105 lead, Blake Griffin got to one of his sweet spots to launch an eight foot leaner (the type of shot that he has been making routinely throughout the series). He was met at the summit by Duncan, who again stripped Griffin after Blake recovered the blocked shot and attempted to reload for another. Boris Diaw snatched the ball after Timmy's strip and J.J. Redick subsequently fouled out of the game trying to subdue Tony Parker. Tony hit one of his two free throws to put the Spurs up three, which proved to be huge in keeping the Spurs at an advantage once clock management became a factor in determining the outcome of the game. It can't be overstated how consequential Timmy's block was in giving us a 3-2 series lead. In the biggest moment of another huge postseason game, the greatest NBA player since Michael Jordan came through in the clutch...again. Groundhog Day.

As we start preparing for Game 6 tomorrow night back home in the comfy confines of the AT&T Center, let us have the wisdom to remember the horrendous effort we put forth in Game 4 and use it as a teachable moment. Our blowout Game 3 victory baited us into assuming that we had broken the spirit of the Los Angeles Clippers. That assumption proved to be disastrous. We didn't break their spirit then (after winning Game 2) and we haven't broken their spirit now (after winning Game 5). The Clippers are not only capable of coming right back and taking Game 6 in San Antonio, I'm certain that their mindset is such that they intend to do exactly that. Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, and company will not play themselves out of the 2015 NBA Playoffs tomorrow night, we have to go out and execute our most focused basketball of the season for 48 minutes and eliminate them. The assumption that we can just show up and we will win because we are at home and we're the Spurs is as ludicrous as Doc Rivers' assumption that every single member of the basketball viewing public didn't simultaneously roll our eyes last night during his post game press conference when he stated, "I don't complain much." The dream of back-to-back Spurs championships has been a torturously elusive one. Each and every Spurs title defense prior to this year has gone down in flames in heartbreaking fashion. From losing Timmy for the playoffs in 2000, to .04 in 2004, to Manu's foul on Dirk in 2006, to the league admission of a missed foul call on Brent Barry in 2008, San Antonio fans know that we are far from out of the woods when it comes to an opponent as talented as our current one. Tomorrow night, we cannot face the Clippers as a team that we have gotten the better of over the past five games. We must face them as the gatekeepers standing in between a city and its pursuit of a dream. The #BlackAndSilver have a dream to catch for the Alamo City and as deserving as Los Angeles is of taking the next step as a franchise, if we play with one goal and one mind tomorrow night, the Clippers' evolution will have to wait for at least one more year. If the Spurs can channel The Beautiful Game and come together for a single purpose in Game 6, then the Clippers faithful will wake up on Friday and have to come to grips with the fact that they simply just had the dumb luck of running into a dreamcatcher in the first round. Tomorrow, we need to forget about merely chasing this elusive dream. Tomorrow, we need to go out there and start our sprint to catch it.

#GoSpursGo

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Featured Image Source: The Hype Factor

Headline Image Source: Yahoo Sports

One Forward

Ready or Not - Whew. Let me catch my breath. It's been almost 48 hours, but I'm still feeling the effects of all the nervous energy it took to watch the most entertaining game of the 2015 NBA Playoffs thus far. That was big. On the verge of falling into a disastrous 0-2 hole on Wednesday night in Los Angeles at the Staples Center, the defending champion San Antonio Spurs edged out the Los Angeles Clippers in overtime 111-107 in Game 2 of the Western Conference First Round to tie the series at one game apiece. Clippers winning streak snapped. Home-court advantage snatched. Now that we've escaped, sleepwalkers awake. All of the pressure in this series has shifted to the third seeded Clippers and their superstar point guard who is desperately hoping to silence his critics by making the first deep playoff run of his 10 year NBA career. Chris Paul did all he could in Game 2. Blake Griffin, his sidekick, also played phenomenally once again save for one costly turnover in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter with a two point lead. That turnover allowed Patty Mills to streak down the court, get fouled, and sink two clutch free throws that tied the game, sending it into overtime, and gave new life to the Spurs in the process.Up 10 points after a spectacular Kawhi Leonard fade-away jumper with 6:41 left in the fourth quarter, San Antonio seemed poised to bully our way into a comfortable road playoff win. But a combination of Hack-A-Jordan, mindless Spurs turnovers, and going cold from the field at an inopportune time allowed L.A. to claw their way back into the game over the final few minutes and take the aforementioned two point lead. There was a terrible sinking feeling in my gut as we squandered away the lead that harkened back to some of the Spurs' playoff road meltdowns against the Shaq and Kobe Lakers in the early part of the previous decade. While the contest on Wednesday took place in that same building, this time we stayed the course, kept the faith, and persevered. Patty was spectacular. Playing heavy minutes to help fill a gaping hole caused by losing Tony Parker to an injury and compounded by losing Manu Ginobili on an uncharacteristically boneheaded choice to stop a fast break with a foul when he already had five at the 3:51 mark in the fourth quarter, Mills went 5-9 from the field and a potential season-saving 6-6 from the free throw line for 18 points.

The player of the game, however, was none other than Time's Father himself, Tim Duncan. Timmy just keeps adding to the legend, earning his 100th career post season double-double with 28 points (14-23) and 11 rebounds. He added 4 assists, two steals, and a block to boot. Duncan set the tone early which allowed the Spurs to play with a lead for most of the game. He also helped get San Antonio over the hump in OT with a vintage runner right in DeAndre Jordan's eye to put us up 101-98 with about three minutes left.Patty hit four more clutch free throws down the stretch in OT to seal the game. My heart was pounding on each one. This victory was huge for the #BlackAndSilver because now, if we can take care of business at home, we have the inside track to defeat the toughest first round opponent of the Gregg Popovich/Tim Duncan era. I'm looking forward to our first opportunity to defend our home court tonight back in the cozy confines of the AT&T Center. I'm getting ready to get in my zone and make sure we deliver. But before I do, one more thing. Yesterday, Kawhi Leonard was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year. While he seemed like a dark horse candidate given that he had missed 18 games due to injury, the honor is well-deserved because at this point there is absolutely no doubt. The man is the greatest defensive basketball player on the planet, hands down. If you don't think so, you're either fooling yourself or you're simply not watching. Congratulations, Whi. Spurs fans everywhere will be hoping you bring your defensive A game tonight. Against this talented opponent, we're going to need it. 

#GoSpursGo

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Featured Image Source: Smash the Club

Headline Image Source: Sportal

Sixteen Down

Wish You Were Here - I clutched the rose on my necklace and peered blankly at the television screen. Moments earlier, I had been standing with my wife, Jenn, in the center of the living room. After screaming, receiving a spectacular hug and then exhaling when it finally happened, I subsequently retreated to the couch and sat down utterly exhausted. I couldn't move. I quickly realized that my momentary euphoria had absconded and left a foreboding cloud in its wake. Despite my tenebrous state, I knew where I was. I was back in the same vast empty space; the space that I had been in 74 days earlier while sitting in my car in the parking lot of the neighborhood basketball court. It was the first time that I had been back since that terrible Thursday evening in early April, but this time it was different. It was the same numbness, the same callosity. The difference was that this time it was familiar. I was acutely aware of it and I knew that the empty void would momentarily be engulfed.

I clutched the rose on my necklace, I peered at the television, and I focused straight ahead at the on-screen celebration. Like a dusting of snowflakes on the dreary overcast day that constitutes winter's last crescendo before gracefully submitting to the adagio exposition of a spring sonata, silver confetti danced in my field of vision. I followed one piece of confetti as it floated down from the rafters, around through the air and as it narrowly missed landing safely on the shoulder of one of the players before drifting rhythmically to a peaceful rest on the court. Like a maestro conducting the soloist in a concerto, this singular piece of confetti directed my eyes to play to its every whim. It demanded my attention and captured my imagination. This one piece of confetti seemed to control me because in that moment, and in the vast, empty space that I occupied, for whatever reason, it seemed profound. It was as if it embodied my entire universe. It was as if it were him. 

* * *

Deep in the bowels of the AT&T Center, LeBron James gathered his Miami Heat teammates in a pregame huddle before taking the court for warmups ahead of Game 5 of the 2014 NBA Finals. Trailing in the series 1-3, the two-time defending champions had their backs up against the ropes and LeBron knew it. Given the trajectory of the series (after James and company had punched the challengers in the nose in Game 2 in San Antonio, the Spurs caught the Heat off guard by counter punching so forcefully in Games 3 and 4 in Miami that the champs were left clutching the ropes to avoid spiraling into a free fall), LeBron understood that it was going to take a super-human effort on his part in Game 5 to fight the Heat off of the ropes and back into the middle of the ring where they could retake the offensive in their quest for a three-peat. His message to his teammates was simple, "Follow my lead."

Less than an hour after hearing these words and following their leader through the tunnel and on to the court for warmups, the Heat were thoroughly in control of the basketball game. With 5:03 left in the first quarter Miami was dominating San Antonio. LeBron, upon hearing the opening bell, had exploded into attack mode for 12 points in the contest's first seven minutes. Also working in Miami's favor was the fact that LeBron's stellar start was coupled with the good fortune that his team was going up against an over-anxious opponent (it was evident that the San Antonio Spurs had returned to their home court and began Game 5 playing like a team that was pressing to win a championship instead of playing like a team that was focused on winning a playoff game). Therefore, a perfect storm was brewing in San Antonio to provide Miami a legitimate opportunity to get back in the series. LeBron James had simultaneously put on his cape and inspired new life in his teammates which allowed the Heat to capitalize on an uncharacteristic lack of composure by the Spurs. It all added up to a 22-6 lead for the the champs.

With seven minutes elapsed in the first quarter of Game 5 and trailing by 16 points, San Antonio was in dire straights and in desperate need of a basket on the next possession to prevent LeBron and the Heat from running away and hiding without being forced to face any resistance from the 18,581 hungry Spurs fans in attendance. Because of the Heat's quick start, the fans in the building had grown anxious but they were still salivating for an opportunity to show Miami how thunderously loud the AT&T Center can get when the city is trying to release nine years of pent-up championship closeout energy. For a little one-horse town, closing in on an NBA title at home means more than it does in the big city. It just does. Sure, it took a great deal of luck for us to have the good fortune to parlay a pair of winning lottery tickets into eventually building the type of small-market basketball franchise that is in contention for an NBA championship every single season. But because of how successful the Spurs have consistently been, nine years is an awful long time to wait for moments such as the one that was before us on Sunday, June 15. This is Titletown, TX, after all and the AT&T Center (also known as the house that David Robinson and Tim Duncan built) had not hosted a home closeout game in the NBA Finals since June 23, 2005 (the 2007 championship team closed out on the road by sweeping the Cavaliers in Cleveland).

Keep in mind, the home crowd was also harboring the heartbreak of losing last year's Finals to the same opponent and the opportunity to put that excruciating pain to rest would be added fuel to get the building rocking louder than ever before should the Spurs find themselves in position to win heading down the stretch. Needless to say, it was assumed that the noise of the home crowd would be a huge advantage for the Spurs throughout the night. Nonetheless, Miami's quick start to open up a 16 point lead had successfully taken the famished and revenge-thirsty crowd out of the game and had, thus, surprisingly neutralized San Antonio's advantage. Even from across town you could feel the tension in the building permeating through the television by virtue of the absence of noise coming from a shell-shocked crowd. Indeed, the next possession was shaping up to be the critical moment of the ball game. If, on the ensuing defensive stance, the Heat were able to force another missed shot or turnover and convert the stop into another easy basket at the other end (extending their lead closer to 20), Gregg Popovich may have been ready (out of frustration and with two losses to spare) to pull the regular rotation players and give the likes of Aron Baynes, Jeff Ayers, Matt Bonner, Marco Belinelli, and Corey Joseph a prolonged opportunity to try to get San Antonio back in the game.

Looking over at Coach Pop on the sidelines, I could almost see it written on his expression. One more empty offensive trip followed by another Heat basket and, more than likely, he would have elected to bench the regulars. I'm sure he knew that it would have been a tall order to hope for the reserve unit to find success in slowing down a LeBron James freight train which had already left the station, but he would have pulled the trigger anyway. The infamous Popovich mass-substitution that was forthcoming if things continued to go south would have demoralized the crowd but it would have also been the right decision and a necessary message for the NBA Coach of the Year to send to the rotation players in order to force them to regroup and refocus (similar to the earlier surrender in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder).

The ensuing possession for the Spurs was, therefore, the critical moment of the ball game because it quite possibly could have been the last chance the regulars might have been afforded to to try and right the ship. In less than seven minutes of game action, the AT&T Center scene, which was supposed to be a coronation, had rapidly deteriorated into a dark, murky mess. We were dangerously close to the point of needing someone from the team's front office to get on the phone with a South Beach hotel and confirm our reservation for a block of rooms the following night. Indeed, gray clouds were beginning to congregate once again in the skies above San Antonio and, as Spurs fans, we were helpless to stop whatever hell the basketball gods were conspiring to unleash. It just seemed like one of those nights. Besides dealing with being unable to defend the best player in the world (playing at the peak of his game), our offense, to that point, had been abysmal. The Spurs were 1-12 from the field and once again our attack, as it had in Game 2, seemed flustered by Miami's frantic defensive pressure. The prospect of returning to Miami to face a suddenly rejuvenated Heat squad that had climbed within two victories of making NBA Finals history by becoming the first team to overcome a 1-3 series deficit was beginning to seem like a real possibility. There was no question that this next possession was the critical moment of the game. Somebody in a home white uniform needed to step up and give this lethargic Spurs team (a team that had seemed invincible 36 hours earlier) some life. We needed a spark and it had to arrive on this possession. Otherwise, there was a distinct possibility that Game 5 was already lost. 

It's always darkest before the dawn.

Like so many times before during his illustrious basketball career, when things seemed to be at their darkest in San Antonio, all of a sudden Manu Ginobili's majestic talent, in all its brilliant colors, appeared at the edge of the horizon and started rising up to fill the sky. During this possession, which doubled as the critical moment in the game, Manu sprang to life and delivered the necessary spark. Sixteen down, Ginobili put the ball on the floor, got bumped by Rashard Lewis, and finished a continuation by dropping a runner in over the top of Miami's interior defense. The whistle blew to award him the And One opportunity and the dormant crowd erupted with the fury of a thousand volcanoes. Fourteen down. Manu stepped up to the free throw line and sank the foul shot. Nothing but net. Thirteen down. Coach Pop was now relieved of the responsibility for making the decision on whether or not to pull the trigger on emptying the bench. The critical moment of the game (perhaps the critical moment of the series, the playoffs, the season, the last seven years) had just happened and Manu Ginobili, the greatest competitor to ever put on a San Antonio Spurs jersey, had delivered.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, he wasn't done. In fact, he was just getting started. On the next Miami possession, Shane Battier (desperate to get himself going in his final NBA game) became overly aggressive trying to establish position. Manu, who was guarding him, refused to give ground and Battier, in frustration, delivered a lethal elbow to Ginobili's chest. The whistle blew once again, but the confrontation continued nonetheless. Battier unrelentingly continued to throw his weight into Manu's upper body. Exacerbated, Ginobili through up his arms and ceded position. The unexpected release of opposing force caused Battier to tumble to the court and once arriving on the floor, the Miami journeyman kicked up his legs, tripping Manu and causing Ginobili to come crashing to the ground as well. Offensive foul, turnover, Spurs' ball. Battier's unwarranted aggression against the Spurs' sixth man proved to be a costly mistake. Within seven seconds of the turnover, Manu was letting a three pointer fly at the other end of the court. He buried it. Ten down. The crowd, sensing something magical was happening, was now working itself into a frenzy. Miami called timeout to try to thwart San Antonio's momentum.

Coming back out of the huddle, the Heat ran a well designed set play that resulted in Ray Allen attacking the smaller Patty Mills off the dribble. With Patty draped all over him, Jesus Shuttlesworth lowered his shoulder during his drive and dropped Mills to the hard court. This time, the referees swallowed their whistles and with no charge forthcoming, Allen dribbled into an open 16 foot jump shot. Surprisingly, the knock-down jump shooter missed and Ginobili was there to snatch a contested rebound. He dribbled down the court, commanded the attention of the Miami defense, and found a wide open Kawhi Leonard alone for another three pointer. Kawhi rose up and calmly knocked it down. Assist, Manu Ginobili. Seven down. Pandemonium in the AT&T Center. 45 seconds had elapsed off of the clock since reaching the critical moment of the game and during that time Manu Ginobili had scored six points, drawn a charge, grabbed a rebound, tallied an assist and cut a 16 point Miami lead to seven in the blink of an eye.

You would be well advised to wear sunglasses when attempting to fully take in the brilliant colors of Number 20's majestic talent. It's just that bright. When it comes to athletes, his is rarified air. The legends surrounding his feats on the basketball court are timeless. I mean, the guy swatted a flying bat right out of the air, and on Halloween no less. Playing his career during the television era has actually done his greatness a disservice because he does something magical every single night that you can only fully appreciate if you have seen it in person. Yet, even with television, these legends persist. Could you imagine them without the deterrent of cameras and replays? He would be our generation's Babe Ruth. Move over, Wilt Chamberlain and Pete Maravich. When I'm old, gray, and sitting out on the porch in a rocking chair with my grandchildren gathered round; I'm telling them stories of the times that I was in the building to see Manu freaking Ginobili.

And I tread a troubled track, my odds are stacked. I'll go back to black.

After Manu's magnificent flurry, the two teams traded baskets for the remainder of the first quarter and the Heat ended the period with a seven point lead heading into the second. To begin the next quarter, Coach Pop drew up a play that the Spurs rarely use; a play that he had added to the Spurs playbook for Richard Jefferson, once upon a time. Kawhi Leonard received the ball at the top of the key and immediately swung it over to Boris Diaw over on the left wing. He then cut hard to the basket curling off of a perfect Tiago Splitter back screen that picked off his defender, Dwyane Wade. Tiago's defender, Chris "Birdman" Andersen was slow to react and Boris delivered a perfect alley oop pass that Kawhi hammered home without breaking a sweat. Five down.

The Heat brought the ball back up the court and ran a set to get Wade a shot but as he tried to attack Danny Green off of the dribble, Danny stripped the ball from him and eventually tied him up for a jump ball. Danny went on to win the tip and the Spurs were back in attack mode. San Antonio methodically worked the ball up the court and around the horn. Tiago to Boris to Tony to Danny back to Boris to Kawhi isolated on the left elbow against LeBron James. Kawhi sized up the king, juked him once with a jab step and head fake, and then rose up and drained a 20 foot jumper right in his eye. Three down. It was beginning to seem as if the Spurs momentum was starting to flummox the Heat. You could see it on the faces of some of LeBron's teammates. They were beginning to succumb to the relentless march of inevitability. As Miami's supporting cast continued to stiffen up, it was clear that the pressure was building up like water in a dam and it was just a matter of time before it was ready to burst open.

Miami, however, was able to regroup and hold the Spurs off over the next few minutes. Wade and Chris Bosh both dropped in jump shots to get the Miami lead back to seven during a four minute stretch in which the Spurs went cold from the field. With the offense stagnating, San Antonio turned to our security blanket to operate the offense for the next few possessions. With the smaller Udonis Haslem guarding him, Tim Duncan went to work. Tony Parker fed Timmy in the post and Timmy dropped a beautiful retro 13 foot turn around fade-away over Haslem's outstretched arms. The hustle & flow of Tim Duncan's post game likens itself to a canon of literature from the Romantic Era and this particular shot was a masterpiece contribution. There was no time to dwell in art appreciation, however, as Wade came right back down, drew a foul, and made both free throws.

On the next possession, the Spurs went right back to TD in the low post. LeBron came with a double team to help Haslem so Duncan turned away from James right into Udonis hoping to draw a foul. When a foul was not granted on the body contact down low, Haslem was able to regroup and block the shot back out to the perimeter. Timmy reacted quickly to regain control of the basketball but with the shot clock winding down he had to throw up a desperation shot. The shot missed but luckily Boris was in position to grab the rebound and alertly fired it back out to Marco Belinelli. Marco pump faked a scrambling Ray Allen, took one dribble, and buried a confident 17 foot jumper that purposefully suggested that, as far as Marco was concerned, C.R.E.A.M. (championships rule everything around me). Belinelli had signed with the Spurs last summer so that he could play for a championship contender and despite limited minutes, he was delivering in his first NBA Finals.

The Heat came back down and attempted to reestablish their sputtering offense but were not patient enough to get the ball into the hands of James in one of his sweet spots. They settled instead for an open Haslem 19 foot jumper from the top of the key. After Haslem missed and Diaw secured the rebound for the Spurs, San Antonio purposefully worked the ball back in to Duncan in the post. Timmy turned, swept across the lane, and put up a running jump hook over a helpless Haslem. This shot was reminiscent of the one he had taken over the top of Shane Battier to give the Spurs a lead in the closing minute of Game 7 of last year's Finals in Miami. Last year, he back rimmed it and the rest was history. This year, he dropped it in as if he were blowing a kiss to the Spurs fans in order to reassure us that his "guarantee" would hold true and that the trophy was coming home. Miami quickly called a timeout but it seemed to be of little use in quelling San Antonio's momentum.

On the next Heat possession, Ray Allen was called for an offensive foul setting a moving screen away from the ball on Boris Diaw. Having clearly established a mismatch in Duncan's match up against the undersized Haslem, the Spurs were happy to continue exploiting it. After the Allen turnover, Tony dribbled off of a screen by Timmy, passed to Boris on the wing. Bobo hit a cutting Duncan near the rim. Tim rose up and scored over Haslem once again and drew the foul. One down. The crowd was now officially embarking on its ascension into the rafters and appeared poised to systematically remove the AT&T Center roof from the rest of the building. In other words, it was safe to say that the fans were starting to smell blood. After Timmy had dropped in his third shot int he last four possessions, LeBron James threw up is hands exasperated. Apparently he did not appreciate bearing witness to true NBA royalty as it shredded apart his team's interior defense. As much as privilege might make it hard to accept, sometimes even kings are rendered helpless and forced to sit back and watch the throne.

Even though Timmy missed the free throw that would have tied the game, it was becoming noticeably visible on the television screen that the body language of LeBron James' teammates was taking a turn for the worse. You could now unquestionably see the dejection in their faces. James would not be quite as easily discouraged, but he now seemed resigned to the fact that this was quickly becoming a contest of the best player in the world versus the best team in the world. While his teammates confidence was eroding, to his credit, the evaporation of the Heat lead only made LeBron look more determined. On the next trip down the court, however, (unfortunately for LeBron) the same could also be said about his opponents, who were oozing with defensive intensity and appeared determined to coalesce as a cohesive unit in order to deny another one-man surge. Defiantly, James attempted to attack off the dribble and was met at the rim by the four outstretched arms of Tim Duncan and Kawhi Leonard. LeBron missed the contested layup and there was a scramble for the loose ball that resulted in the ball cascading out of bounds off of Manu.Not to be deterred, LeBron attacked the rim again after Miami inbounded the ball. Again, he was met at the rim, this time by Timmy and Boris and again he missed the lay up. Uninterested in giving the king a third chance to get to the rim, this time Kawhi gobbled up the rebound and immediately started pushing the ball up the court.

On the break, Rashard Lewis picked up Kawhi sprinting down the middle of the court but as Kahwi approached the three point line, Lewis continued back pedaling to the free throw line. Leonard stopped his attack on a dime and rose up behind the arc to take the type of shot that only superstars dare to attempt on this big of a stage and the type of shot that he wouldn't have dreamed of taking in the 2013 NBA Finals. Not only did Kawhi rise up and attempt such a risky transition three, but in keeping with his rising stardom he had the swagger to bury that cold-blooded triple. Two up. The amassed fans in the AT&T Center lost their collective minds. The San Antonio Spurs had our first lead of Game 5 of the 2014 NBA Finals.

With the lead finally secured, (having already made a play in the critical moment of the game) the Spurs called on Manu Ginobili to step on the opponents' collective throats. Based upon the fire in his eyes, Manu clearly appeared to believe that he still had more to do to finish the job of redeeming himself for his 2013 NBA Finals performance. After Miami wound up with a contested Ray Allen fade away on a broken play, Patty Mills narrowly missed a three, and Rashard Lewis air balled a contested three, Manu caught the ball near the top of the key and waived off a screen to get an isolation against Lewis. Ginobili calmly dribbled the ball back out to near the half court line to set up his attack. He drove left on Lewis and as Chris Bosh came to help near the rim, Manu smoothly reversed the ball underneath the basket with his left hand and dropped it up off the backboard on the other side of the rim for a sick reverse layup. Four up. You could now hear the AT&T Center crowd from the suburbs. After Patty Mills drew a charge on Dwyane Wade on the next Heat possession, you could easily hear the crowd from San Marcos. The Spurs brought the ball back down the court and five passes later, Manu was fouled on another drive to the basket and almost converted the three point play on a runner. He uncharacteristically rimmed out the first free throw but he knocked down the second one. Five up. The crowd at the AT&T Center was going (what could only be described at this point as) bananas and you could almost see the demons of Game 6 of last year's Finals gathering their things together to get ready to leave the building.

LeBron, however, (still competing hard) drove the lane again and created a wide open three pointer for Bosh. Seemingly half-heartedly, Bosh launched the shot which rimmed out. Timmy secured the rebound and got the ball back to Manu on the outlet. With a full head of steam and that look in his eyes, Manu drove to the cup and jumped in the air for what seemed would be another spectacular reverse layup or floater. To the surprise of every member of planet Earth's basketball viewing public, Manu Ginobili didn't put the ball in position for a layup or floater. Instead he just kept rising up in the air. Up and up he went until he had the ball so high that he was at a clear advantage over Chris Bosh, who was challenging Manu at the rim. The 36 year old proceeded to slam the ball so violently into the basket directly in Bosh's face that I literally began crying tears of joy. Seven up (and I'm not talking about the soda), demons exorcised.

In my 30 years of watching the NBA, Manu Ginobili is the only player I have ever seen that has been able to do things with a basketball that have made me so full of such utter euphoria that my only recourse is to begin weeping and that is a good enough reason for me to make him the player of the game. Like the sonic boom you would imagine is created when a supernova explodes, the Spurs fans in attendance finally reached the crescendo of Titletown, TX's close-out a championship at home for the first time in nine years noise. You could hear it clear across the entire state. The noise, as predicted, was now an insurmountable obstacle for the Miami Heat to overcome. The writing was on the wall. When James (still competing, God bless him) was able to drop in a fade-away jumper to cut the lead back to five, the Spurs dribbled back down the court and even though the show was over, Manu amused the fans by granting them an encore. After a series of San Antonio Spurs passes, Manu caught the ball at the top of the key, dribbled right (using a Tim Duncan screen), stepped back off of the dribble, and drained a juicy fade away three pointer. As if it was all a dream, we were eight up, and the ball game was over. The San Antonio Spurs had a lead that we would not relinquish.

So wild international.

In the second half, the coronation was indeed on. Miami was unable to threaten to change the outcome of the game and the Spurs offense shifted naturally into cruise control. Patty Mills erupted for 14 points in the third quarter making all five of his shots including four from downtown. Needless to say, the Spurs backup point guard, who had played remarkably well throughout the playoff run, was hot in the third. In the fourth, it was the Tony Parker show. Parker, who went scoreless until the last possession of the third quarter, scored 14 points in the fourth on 6-7 shooting and 2-2 from the free throw line. It was a fitting cherry on top of the sweet and tasty championship dish for a man who had put the Spurs on his back the season before and almost carried the team to a title. You could easily sense that while Parker had put together a legendary 2013 playoff performance that had fallen only 28 seconds short of a championship, he was much happier to play a lesser role in 2014 but actually capture another ring, with a little help from my friends. With 2:12 left in the game and the Spurs ahead by 18, Gregg Popovich began substituting his star players out to give them a well deserved standing ovation.

After "having the trophy so close within reach that we could almost scrape a finger nail on it" last season, it was remarkable to see the mixture of excitement, joy, relief, and vindication expressed on the star players' faces as they fittingly took their curtain calls. The first to leave was Kawhi Leonard: The Future. Next, it was Tim Duncan: The Franchise. Then, Manu Ginobili: The Legend was pulled from the game. Finally, Coach Pop substituted for Tony Parker: The Present and Boris Diaw: The X-Factor together allowing the high school teammates the opportunity to fulfill a childhood dream. After all of the Spurs' stars had had their curtain calls, it was just a matter of watching the clock run down during garbage time.

With 42 seconds left in the game, Jeff Ayers made the last basket of the Spurs' 2014 NBA season by draining a 20 foot jumper that was assisted by The Red Mamba, Matt Bonner (the only other member of the team besides the Big Three that was already an NBA Champion). Tony Douglas came down a made a 24 foot three point jumper for the Heat with 37 seconds left and then the countdown to basketball bliss was on. Because the shot clock was running down with 14 seconds left in the game, Corey Joseph launched a half-hearted 19 foot jumper that missed. James Jones got the rebound, Miami advanced the ball, and Toney Douglas put up another three pointer with one second left for good measure. The shot missed as the buzzer sounded and the San Antonio Spurs were NBA Champions once again. The drive for five was complete. Confetti was free fallin'. Cinco.

The post-game celebration was spectacular to witness. Coach Pop sitting on the bench, looking utterly exhausted, just soaking in the excitement of his players. Tim Duncan and Mana Ginobili enjoying the moment through the eyes of their children. Danny Green running around like a kid in a candy store, manically trying to hug anyone and everyone all at once. Above all else, what stood out was the expression on Kawhi Leonard's face as the players gathered for trophy ceremony. If you've ever wanted to know what it is like to win a championship, all you would have to do is look at Kawhi's eyes during those moments. They told you, "it's good." And his smile reinforced, "it is good." As Adam Silver (the newly appointed NBA Commissioner) announced Leonard as the recipient of the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP award, the combination of unbridled joy and genuine shock was a fascinating snapshot of this entire era of San Antonio Spurs basketball. The humble glow on Kawhi's face just beamed through as if to say, "wow, this is pretty sweet, I could get used to it." Hopefully, like his teammate Tim Duncan, who won the same trophy in 1999 (at a similar age to Kawhi) he will in fact get quite used to it. Not only was Kawhi following in the footsteps of Timmy, but for the first time since Paul Pierce in 2008 and for only the fourth time in history (Dennis Johnson in 1979 and Bill Walton in 1977), the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Award is going (going) back (back) to Cali. Kawhi is only the fourth native Californian to win the award joining Pierce, Johnson, and Walton.

Leonard played remarkably in Game 3-5 of the Finals. He was like a phantom of the future. Game 3: 29 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks. Game 4: 20 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, 3 blocks. Game 5: 22 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block. For three games, Kawhi went toe to toe with the best basketball player in the world in LeBron James and for three games, the Spurs' small forward played the king to at least a draw. Kawhi forced LeBron's game to suffer a severe case of californication. In fact, you could easily argue that Kawhi's combination of Bruce Bowen defense and Sean Elliot offense in the final three games of the series was good enough to one up LeBron.

While firmly establishing himself during these Finals as an NBA superstar, Kawhi also has karate kicked the Spurs' championship window back to wide open for several years to come. As for next year, the young nucleus of Tiago, Danny, Patty, and Kawhi represents a respectable foundation for constructing a playoff contender. Throw in the rejuvenated Boris Diaw, a still-in-his-prime Tony Parker continuing to play at an all-star level, and another year of Manu and Timmy performing at an exceptional level for their age, and there is no reason why San Antonio shouldn't be right in the mix to defend our title when the 2015 playoff roll around. This sustained run of excellence, that will seemingly continue for several years to come, has exceeded the wildness of my imagination as a young Spurs fan coming of age during the first run to the title in 1999. It is hard to fathom that here we are 16 seasons later and there is no end in sight for the Spurs playing the role of championship contender. What are the chances that your favorite team from childhood would go on to become (hands down) the best team in American professional sports for two straight decades? Not a day goes by that I don't marvel in the dumb luck of that happening to me. I'm thankful for my Spurs every day. 

We here now. It's time to stand up and elevate the game.

In this series, the #BlackAndSilver were in pursuit of achieving a human accomplishment that predates the entire history in which our species has enjoyed stewardship of the planet. In this series, the Spurs were in pursuit of achieving something primordial...redemption. It was evident from before the tip-off of the first game. You may have noticed a stark difference between the introduction of the 2014 NBA Finals from the introduction of the 2013 NBA Finals. This year's finals were not introduced with a laser and fire show as they were the year before in Miami. In San Antonio, the National Anthem was sung, the lineups were introduced, and the players took the court to jump center. It was an old-school feel. So old-school, in fact, the AT&T Center forgot to turn on the air conditioning for Game 1. The blistering playing conditions of Game 1 were emblematic of the fiery focus of a team that would not be deterred from achieving the redemption it had locked its sight on. The focus in our players' eyes was carnal and that fire burned over the course of the next five games. Without theatrics or showmanship this focused group from humble San Antonio put on their hard hats and worked the glitz and glamour Heatles into dust. Ball don't lie when the results are irrefutable. The Spurs outscored the Heat by an average of 14 points per game, the largest point differential in NBA Finals history. San Antonio not only chased redemption and captured it in the 2014 NBA Finals, but we inevitably grabbed it so hard that we squeezed the life out of the flamboyant team that we were taking it from.

Indeed, the 2014 San Antonio Spurs were among the greatest championship teams in recent memory. The way that we were able to come together to play dominant team basketball was truly remarkable. This team was better than the 2013 Heat title team. If you could catch Eric Spolstra, Pat Riley, or a member of the team in a moment of candor, I imagine that you could get any of them, to a man, to admit that they were extremely fortunate to be champions in 2013. This year's Spurs team was also better than the 2012 Heat or the 2011 Mavs. This squad would have destroyed the Kobe-Gasol Lakers. I believe they would be favored over the 2008 Boston Celtics. This current incarnation of the Spurs, while not the defensive behemoth of past title teams, was hands down the best offensive Spurs squad to win a title. And because they were sneakily above average defensively as well, they were arguably the best Spurs title team to-date. The last champion that could make a compelling case to be historically greater is probably the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers. When you factor in the redemption theme, you can, however, make a strong case that this year's Spurs team was the greatest team to win an NBA championship since the 1998 Chicago Bulls.

Speaking of redemption, while ranking the greatness of past champions is a subjective endeavor, I can say that the similarities that I outlined before these Finals started between the 1989 Detroit Pistons and the 2014 San Antonio Spurs proved to be quite accurate. Both teams lost the Finals in seven games the year before in heart-breaking fashion. Both teams also had the good fortune to get a rematch against the team that had beaten them in the Finals the year before. In 1989, the Detroit Pistons dismantled the Los Angeles Lakers in a decisive four game sweep that ultimately shut the door on the championships that were collected by the Magic Johnson / Kareem Abdul-Jabbar / Pat Riley era Lakers. In 2014, the San Antonio Spurs annihilated the Miami Heat and halted the ring count bravado of the LeBron James / Dwyane Wade / Chris Bosh era. Heat at not three, not four, not five, not six, but two. Both teams ripped through their respective opponents as if they weren't even playing the rival who had bested them the year before but were rather playing a game of chess against redemption itself. It takes focus to beat redemption at a game of chess and both teams had it. It also takes an impeccable brain trust. For the 1989 Detroit Pistons, that brain trust was Hall of Fame point guard Isaiah Thomas and legendary Head Coach Chuck Daly. Thomas and Daly, while at the NBA apex for a period of only two years, were nonetheless standard-bearers for basketball excellence during the bridge between Magic's Lakers and Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls. Future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan and his cantankerous partner Head Coach Gregg Popovich are clearly the brain trust of the 2014 San Antonio Spurs. Their run of basketball excellence has sustained over two decades and by taking the 2014 NBA title, Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich have further solidified their entrenchment as the standard-bearers for consistent brilliance over the last twenty years not only for the NBA, but for all of American professional sports. 

Bombs over Baghdad.

This is a public service announcement, brought to you by the good folks at theLeftAhead: Tim Duncan is NOT the greatest power forward of all-time. Is Tim Duncan greater than Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, Kevin Garnett and on down the list? There is no question about it. But by boxing Timmy into a discussion about power forwards, one is robbing his legacy the opportunity to be held up and compared to other big men...the likes of Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Shaquille O'Neal, and on down the list. Furthermore, Timmy's place among the pantheon of great players should not be limited by position at all. Not that Tim Duncan cares about all of the lights, but we need to be discussing how he compares to Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Kobe Bryant as well. Now that Timmy has been around the block five times, I am of the opinion that he is one of the five greatest basketball players of all-time. The others on my list? Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and Magic Johnson. Keep in my mind that I said the greatest basketball players of all-time not the best basketball players of all-time. Best means that one has mastered the art of playing the game of basketball; greatest means that one has mastered the art of winning at the game of basketball's highest level. So yes, Tim Duncan is one of the five greatest basketball players of all-time. Not only am I of this opinion, but I have the numbers to bare it out.

Now that the ring count is retied, it is extremely difficult for the Kobe apologists to continue to make the case that Kobe is the greatest player in the post-Jordan era. Keep in mind that Kobe won three of his five championship rings as arguably the second best player on the team, in other words as Shaquille O'Neal's sidekick. While Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and now Kawhi Leonard have all had moments during championship runs where they have asserted themselves as the Spurs number one option, there is no question that for all five championship runs, Tim Duncan was the foundation of the team and for his entire career, he has been the Spurs best player. Tim Duncan is a quintessential winner and with this title he has definitively cemented his status as the greatest NBA basketball player in the post-Jordan era. In fact, based on winning at the highest level, you can argue that Timmy is the second greatest player behind Michael Jordan to lace them up since 1980. Look at how Timmy's career performance in the NBA Finals stacks up against the other all-time great players of the last 34 years. Only Michael Jordan boasts a better career performance. 

Notable NBA Finals Career Performances Since 1980

(minimum 27 games)

Michael Jordan: 24-11 in the NBA Finals (.686), 6 championship rings (6-0 in Finals series), 6 Finals MVP's

Tim Duncan: 23-11 in the NBA Finals (.676), 5 championship rings (5-1 in Finals series), 3 Finals MVP's

Kobe Bryant: 23-14 in the NBA Finals (.621), 5 championship rings (5-2 in Finals series), 2 Finals MVP's

Shaquille O'Neal: 17-13 in the NBA Finals (.567), 4 championship rings (4-2 in Finals series), 3 Finals MVP's

Larry Bird: 16-15 in the NBA Finals (.516), 3 championship rings (3-2 in Finals series), 2 Finals MVP's

Magic Johnson: 24-27 in the NBA Finals (.471), 5 championship rings (5-4 in Finals series), 3 Finals MVP's

LeBron James: 11-16 in the NBA Finals (.407), 2 championship rings (2-3 in Finals series), 2 Finals MVP's

This 5th NBA Championship is enormous for something that Tim Duncan insists that he does not spend time thinking about but is constantly on the mind of his biggest fans...his legacy. The appointment Timmy has made to hoist a 5th banner into the rafters of the AT&T Center catapults Duncan, in my opinion, onto the Mount Rushmore of basketball players, supplanting Magic Johnson to take his place next to Bill Russell, Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. By leading the Spurs to the 2014 title, the incomparable Tim Duncan aka Time's Father has left Kobe Bryant and all of his other contemporaries in his dust and ascended to the highest rung for greatness in NBA annals. Timmy now has Russell, Jordan, and Jabbar in his sights and should he capture another title before he retires he will pass by Kareem and spark quite a debate for basketball junkies such as myself because a 6th Duncan ring would invariably make the designation of Greatest Basketball Player of All-Time a three person conversation.

What is likely far more rewarding to Timmy than individual greatness, is being a part of the San Antonio big three. Duncan reveres his teammates and having a pair of them that have been by his side for the majority of this spectacular run is seemingly more rewarding to him than all of the individual hardware he has collected over the years. You need not look any further for evidence of this than Timmy's interactions with Tony and Manu while celebrating their fourth title together. Duncan couldn't seem to get enough of being near Tony and Manu and reflecting on what they had accomplished together as comrades, brothers, and friends. And indeed, what the three of them have accomplished together is truly extraordinary...four titles together spanning 12 seasons. Incredible.

If the trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili had happened to be put together for an NBA franchise in a major media market, they would be universally revered as the greatest NBA trio of all-time. For arguments sake, let’s place them in Boston. Say Rick Pitino and the Celtics had won that 1997 draft lottery after all and drafted Tim Duncan and had also had the good fortune to draft Parker and Ginobili in subsequent years. Boston fans would have forgotten about Larry Bird, Kevin McCale, and Robert Parish because Boston would now have 21 NBA titles instead of 17 with Timmy, Tony, and Manu hauling in more banners than Larry Legend did. The Spurs trio would be regarded as the kings of Boston with the city's infamous fans lining up arm in arm all along the watchtower on the off chance that they might catch a glimpse or their conquering heroes each time they were ushered inside the castle walls. Boston fans would be like, Pedro who? The pet phrase Big Papi would evoke Bostonians to think of Big Punisher not David Ortiz. I mean, Bobby Orr wouldn't even be able to get a free ride on a zambony these days in Boston if Tim, Tony, and Manu were currently playing there. In New York? Forget about it. Luckily for me and millions of other small-market Spurs fans, we rarely had to share our adoration of the greatest trio in NBA history with the rest of basketball's global fan base until recently. As much as we have enjoyed keeping Timmy, Tony, and Manu primarily to ourselves over the last 12 years, it is gratifying to see them finally getting their just do with the larger basketball audience. 

Revolution 1: The art of teamwork, perfected.

The culmination that faithful Spurs fans had been waiting for manifested in the 2014 NBA Finals. For the 2014 San Antonio Spurs, it truly was a beautiful game. The Spurs had shown glimpses of this unstoppable team basketball at times over the past three seasons. During the 20 game winning streak spanning the last ten games of the 2012 regular season and the first ten games of the 2012 playoffs, it was on display. The Spurs reached these heights at times during the 2013 Finals run, albeit too sporadically. It's almost a footnote in Spurs history now given the heartbreaking way that the 2013 Finals concluded, but the Spurs dismantled the defending champion Miami Heat by 36 points in Game 3 of that series. This season, we had a 19 game winning streak during the regular season during which we looked unbeatable at times.

This ascension back to the NBA mountain top seemed unfathomable to most of the experts. After losing Manu Ginobili to injury prior to the 2009 NBA playoffs and then inexplicably bowing out in the first round as the three seed to the sixth seeded Dallas Mavericks in 5 games, a theory emerged that the Spurs were too old to continue to compete for NBA championships. In 2010, we returned the favor to Dallas by upsetting the second seeded Mavericks as the seventh seed but we proceeded to fall apart in the second-round and let one of our other rivals from years past finally got the better of us. The Phoenix Suns exorcised some of their own demons by sweeping the Spurs out of the playoffs in that 2010 Western Conference Semi-Final series. In 2011, the Spurs temporarily quelled some of the "too old" narrative by regaining our mastery of the regular season to enter the 2011 playoffs as the one seed. Once again, however, an injury disrupted Manu Ginobili and the Spurs were embarrassingly eliminated in the first round by the Memphis Grizzlies in six games.

At this point the "too old" narrative reached its apex right before the Spurs pulled off one of the greatest draft day trades in NBA history to acquire the rights to Kawhi Leonard in exchange for sending beloved Spurs guard George Hill to his hometown Indiana Pacers. Plucking American-born Kawhi Leonard away from the Pacers began one of the most spectacular engineering projects of global collaboration in the history of industrialization that retooled the Spurs into the machine on display during these Finals. Kawhi was soon joined by fellow American Danny Green to create the toughest defensive starting wing-combination in the NBA. With that combination in place to accompany the big three, the Spurs' front office did what they do better than any other front office in the league and started globe trotting. Boris Diaw was added to the squad to join Tony from France. Tiago Splitter continued to develop his Brazilian game to complement Manu's South American flare. Patty Mills and Aron Baynes were acquired from Down Under and Marco Belinelli was brought in to add some Italian seasoning to the mix. By the time the 2012 lock out ended and the season was underway, the Spurs had remarkably found a way to put all of the pieces into place to return to seriously contending for NBA championships. It was just a matter of time before the machine became an instrument that was fine-tuned to begin playing the sweet, sweet music of The Beautiful Game.

This June, the time was finally now. Without a doubt, the 2014 San Antonio Spurs were built not bought. In fact, they were purposefully engineered in the global marketplace to outwit the discouraging trend of teams buying the greatest individual talent available in American and betting on the odds that the accumulation of individual talent would overpower the competition. This was the blueprint that the 2012 and 2013 Miami Heat borrowed from the 2008 Boston Celtics to win back-to-back NBA championships. This year, the Spurs obliterated that blueprint by building a global team whose whole was remarkably greater than the sum of its parts. The engineering of the machine was complete. The machine was a beautiful instrument and that instrument played a song so overpowering that the best basketball player in the world was powerless to silence it. The Beautiful Game performed an overpowering symphony in the 2014 NBA Finals that was so remarkably rewarding to listen to, there is only one possibility for its title. Cinco.

As I sit here beaming as one of the luckiest and happiest sports fans of a generation, I know that I should be satisfied. I know I should stop clapping and exit the theater. But against my better judgement, I can't help but wonder if the San Antonio Spurs have one more encore left for those of us still in the audience continuing our unabashed ovation. There is still one unturned stone, there is still one unaccomplished goal, there is still one dream that we have not yet been able to catch. Back-to-back. So if you need me, I'll still be here in the audience cheering relentlessly and waiting to see if the band comes back out to give that one elusive encore. If you need me, I'll still be here in the audience holding my breath waiting to see if The Beautiful Game returns to play the most spectacular symphony of my wildest dreams. Come on, San Antonio. Just one more. Play that back-to-back music to my ears. Let's go, Spurs. Just one more. Seis.

* * *

As I sat on the couch and in that vast empty space, I knew that my emotions would soon engulf me. I rested there, motionless, embracing my catatonia while fully understanding that time is the enemy. My acute awareness of an impending emotional reaction was driven primarily by my experience in April, but also partially by a prior experience with a championship clinching win by the San Antonio Spurs. As I stared blankly at the television, coincidentally on Father's Day, at this 2014 Spurs' celebration, I remembered my experience watching Game 7 of the 2005 NBA Finals and I remembered my dad. The 2005 NBA Finals series between the Detroit Pistons and the San Antonio Spurs had been a special moment in time for my father and me. Since my childhood, my dad and I had dreamed of an NBA Finals match up between our two favorite teams (Detroit was my dad's favorite team and San Antonio is obviously my favorite team) and in bitter sweet fashion, our dream came to pass in 2005 at both the best and worst of times.

In August of 2004, my dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. I was living in Detroit at the time and the Pistons were fresh off of winning the title in resounding fashion by destroying the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals. My dad and I had had an ongoing tradition since I was in junior high school to attend the Spurs' game in San Antonio each year when the Detroit Pistons were in town. With a couple of exceptions due to extenuating circumstances, my dad and I had attended every Detroit Pistons v. San Antonio Spurs game that took place in San Antonio since 1993. After my dad's diagnosis, he and my mom visited me in Detroit and we were able to take a trip out to the Palace at Auburn Hills (the Detroit Pistons arena) but it was during the NBA off-season so there was not an opportunity to see a Pistons' home game during their visit. Nonetheless, after I returned to Texas during the holidays, my dad and I attended one last game between the Pistons and the Spurs in San Antonio during the 2004-05 regular season. With both the Pistons and Spurs once again among the top teams in their respective conferences, I remember my dad and I discussed during the game how promising it looked that our dream of Detroit v. San Antonio matchup in the NBA Finals would be realized in June.

When June arrived and that was, amazingly, the 2005 NBA Finals matchup, my dad's disease had taken root and his mind was too far gone to be fully present with me to share the experience we had been dreaming of for so many years. I watched the Spurs defeat the Pistons in Game 2 with him in my parent's home on Sunday, June 12, 2005. My dad smiled as he peered at the television during that game. He clearly enjoyed my company but was experiencing the realization of our dream in spirit much more than he was able to experience it cognitively. By the time Game 7 arrived, and the Spurs escaped victorious from a pressure-packed fourth quarter, watching the game alone in my Dallas apartment, I remember I had had a numbness in processing the result. I had occupied a vast, empty space as the Spurs began celebrating the 2005 championship. I remember that I was emotionally exhausted and I was eerily detached from the happiness that comes with a title-clinching victory. After watching the championship ceremony and witnessing Tim Duncan receive his third NBA Finals MVP award, I called my parents on the phone to talk to my dad. He was happy to speak to me. My mom had had the game on in the house for him, but apparently he had not been able to process the results very well. When I told him that my Spurs had just finished playing his Pistons for the NBA Championship, he asked me, "who scored the most touchdowns?" That was the moment the devastatingly cruel reality of Alzheimer's disease hit home with me. Alone in an apartment in Dallas, I was no longer detached. The space I occupied was no long vast and empty. On the night of Thursday, June 23, 2005, my beloved San Antonio Spurs had just won our third NBA championship and I was alone, balling uncontrollably, engulfed in a perfect storm of agony and ecstasy. The ferocity of the competing emotions made for a piercing experience, one I assumed I was unlikely to experience again. 

Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground. Same as it ever was.

One of the last things that Brian and I had been making plans to do together was to find a weekend to get together in San Antonio and go to a Spurs game. As the season wore on and we hadn't pinned down a game we wanted to attend on a weekend that worked with both of our schedules, it seemed that the best plan might be to try to target a playoff game that would fall on a weekend. Then, on April 3 (a few weeks before the start of the playoffs), just like that, Brian was gone. When I decided to write this second edition of the Black & Silver blog series after Brian's passing, I knew that I wanted to dedicate it to my best friend. After making the commitment to the project, I experienced this calming confidence that permeated from outside of myself and that I associated with Brian's spirit. Inexplicably, I just knew that the Spurs would prevail this year.

Through out the playoff run, I carried his memory with me. The Spurs have allowed me to feel close to him. Since Brian's passing, I've worn a silver rose on a necklace as a memorial to my best friend. The rose is symbolic of a significant moment in our friendship so I have been wearing it around my neck as a tribute to him every day since April 3rd and I will continue to wear it every day for the rest of my life. As these playoffs have unfolded, I've regularly clutched the rose on my necklace in tense moments during games. After the Spurs captured the title, as I sat on the couch watching the championship ceremony unfold, the vast empty space persisted and I continued to wait patiently to be engulfed. I knew that the same mixture of emotions that I felt in 2005 were an inevitability. I also knew that there was only one thing that would release me from emptiness and into the endless depths of emotion. There was a song that I needed to hear. Holding on to the rose on my necklace I sat on the couch in my emptiness and watched to post game championship coverage until the last piece of confetti had dropped from the rafters. When the coverage was complete and the lights were turned off in the AT&T Center, embracing the darkness, I switched over from the television to our living room stereo, found the aforementioned song and pressed play. The music crashed down on my soul like a tidal wave and, as anticipated, I was finally engulfed. 

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year.

We met in seventh grade basketball tryouts. It was 1991 and I guess I was thirteen and he was twelve. Being a naturally gifted athlete, Brian was ahead of me on the depth chart. If my memory serves me, he started the season as the third string point guard on the A team and I started the season as the second string point guard on the B team. For whatever reason, quickly after tryouts had begun, we started pairing up together for drills during practice that required a partner. Maybe it was because we enjoyed each other’s company. Perhaps it was because Brian was very laid back and I lacked steady confidence in my abilities which made us a good match because some of the other point guards on the team were super competitive. I’m sure it was probably a combination of those things. Regardless, I quickly established myself in Brian’s circle of close friends.

I think that one of the reasons we ended up becoming best friends is that, while we shared similar interests with our entire group of friends such as sports, video games, clothes, and music, Brian and I seemed to have a special connection when it came to our shared interests in music and basketball. It went beyond simply enjoying the same artists and athletes. For some reason, we both had a passion to interact with the music and sport that we loved, but we always had a blast sharing music and basketball with each other. For over 22 years music and basketball were woven together throughout the majestic quilt that was my most important friendship. From creating our own pretend radio station as eight graders in 1992 to creating Rhime Divine (our own hip hop group) as college sophomores in 1998. From having a blast playing Hoop It Up together in Austin in 1994 to attending Game 1 of the 2003 NBA Finals together at the AT&T Center in San Antonio. Music and basketball were omnipresent in my relationship with my best friend. This journey has taught me that they are now vehicles that I can use anytime that I want to feel close to him.

As I announced in the post after the Spurs had gone into the City of Blinding Lights and stormed the castle, the songs that appear in this year’s edition of the Black And Silver blog series originate from a playlist entitled Brian’s Cuts that I created for his memorial party. These were songs that Brian loved. I used them to honor him as I used our team as my muse to do something that he always pushed me to do more of; write. Perhaps the blogging was a coping mechanism. Perhaps it was a distraction. The pain was acute when I began this journey and sitting on the couch in that vast empty space after the journey was complete, I was utterly exhausted. I had nothing left. It has taken me a great deal of time to put these thoughts together. While the thoughts flowed freely during the journey, once it was completed, the well was empty. Now, I am finally beginning the slow process of replenishing it.

A great deal has changed since that unforgettable night in June. I now live in Denver, Colorado. LeBron James is once again a Cleveland Cavalier. And the San Antonio Spurs once again have made history by becoming the first franchise in the four major North American professional sports leagues to hire a full-time female assistant coach in Becky Hammon (one of my proudest moments as a Spurs fan). One thing hasn't changed. I miss my best friend and I think about him every day. I am continuing to use music and basketball as vehicles to feel close to him. As I had come to realize during the journey that was the 2014 San Antonio Spurs' march to a tithe title, music and basketball are woven together throughout the majestic quilt that was my most important friendship. The two fabrics complimented each other perfectly.

Sitting on that couch in that vast empty space back in June, I prepared myself for the inevitable engulfment, found the song I needed to hear and I pressed play. Wish you were here. With every ounce of my being, in that moment, wish you were here. I finally succumbed to the moment and the moment brought me peace. Brian is gone but every time I clutch my rose, I garner strength. I have our music. Every time I play one of our songs, I garner strength. I have our Spurs. Every time I reflect back on the 2014 Spurs march to the title and how close it made me fells to my best fiend, I garner strength. Wish you were here. And wishing it is torture, but through this journey I have established an unbreakable connection with the ways that you are here. Brian, I miss you. I can't wait to see you again on the other side. Until then, I won't forget to write. 

Lights out, guerrilla radio.

#GoSpursGo

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Editor's Note: An excerpt of this post was originally published on July 31, 2014. The excerpt was deleted and replaced with the completed piece on May 2, 2015 but we are choosing to keep the original publication date. The final version of this piece references the hiring of Becky Hammon by the San Antonio Spurs on August 5, 2014. That historic event, however, postdates the represented publication date of the post.

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Featured Image Source: NBA.com

Headline Image Source: El Quinto Cuarto

Seven Right

Starin' Through My Rear View - The Miami Heat lead the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals five to four after coming into the AT&T Center last night and stealing Game 2 of this year's series 98-96 in front of 18,581 properly cooled off Spurs fans. My fear coming into last night was that the Heat were capable of stealing Game 2 by forcing the Spurs into committing an uncharacteristic number of turnovers and then converting those into fast break points at the other end of the court. To my complete and utter shock, Miami indeed proved capable of stealing Game 2 but not through the formula that I believed to be their only path to victory. San Antonio only committed 11 turnovers last night which Miami converted into an uneventful five points. If I hadn't been allowed to watch the game and was only allowed to look at one statistic from the box score after the game to try to determine whether or not we had won, I would have looked at the Spurs' turnovers. The way that we have been playing at home this postseason, having seen those numbers, I would have assumed that we probably cruised to another double-digit victory at the AT&T Center. And, indeed, we were well on our way to doing just that for the first 14 minutes of the game. The Spurs were ahead of the Heat by 11 (30-19) when, for some inexplicable reason, Ray Allen was able to fake both Marco Belinelli and Boris Diaw into believing he was going to pass the ball to a cutter while standing at the three point line. Both Marco and Boris bit on the pump fake pass leaving Allen wide open behind the arc. Ray Allen drained the triple to cut the Spurs lead to eight and in doing so, completely shifted the momentum in the game. Miami finished the second quarter on a 24-13 run to tie the game at halftime and were able to get the best player in the world going in the process. During that run, LeBron James scored 11 points and established a rhythm in the game that would come back to haunt the Spurs in the second half.

In the third quarter, James gave San Antonio a flashback of the nightmares we had all of last summer by shooting the basketball like he did in Game 7 of last year's Finals; except this time he did it in our building. James shot 6-7 in the period (including a pair of three pointers) for 14 points. All of his baskets in the third came over the top of the defense from the perimeter. Yet despite LeBron taking over the game on the offensive end, the Spurs hung tight in the period and even took a one point lead into the final frame when Tony Parker hit a shot on our last possession to put us back ahead. The fourth quarter was back and fourth again as the Heat pretty much relied on James to create all of their offense by facilitating at the top of the key. LeBron was brilliant again scoring another eight points in the period and creating a wide-open three pointer for Chris Bosh to give Miami a two point lead with 1:17 left in the game. After Manu Ginobili committed the most costly of our 11 turnovers on the ensuing possession trying to force it into Tim Duncan on the post (to be fair, Manu was poked in the eye at the top of the key which should have been called a foul giving Manu two free throws), Kawhi Leonard fouled out of the game trying to defend LeBron's drive to the basket. James split the pair of free throws and then Manu missed a jumper from 19 feet. The Heat rebounded the ball, gave it to LeBron at the top of the key where he was able to create a hockey assist by passing to Bosh who then hit a cutting Dwyane Wade under the basket to take a five point lead with nine seconds left. After a timeout, the Spurs ran a decent play to get Boris Diaw a look at a three pointer but he decided to drive and kick when a Miami defender rushed towards him. He got the ball to Manu, who drained the triple, but the play took too long to develop and time expired.

While LeBron James put on a masterful 35 point, 10 rebound, 3 assits Game 2 performance that put his team in a position to win an NBA Finals game on the road, the San Antonio Spurs beat ourselves. To my surprise it wasn't turnovers that did us in last night. Instead, another nemesis of ours (that hadn't reared its ugly head in quite a while) made an unfortunate and untimely cameo in the 2014 NBA Finals: missed free throws. The Spurs went 12-20 from the charity stripe in Game 2 including a brutal possession in the guts of the game in which we went 0-4. With 6:43 remaining in the fourth quarter, Mario Chalmers was flagged with a flagrant foul when he hit Tony Parker in the chest with a vicious elbow underneath the Heat's basket as he tried to free himself from Tony off of his dribble penetration. This gave the Spurs two free throw attempts and possession of the basketball. Tony missed both and on the ensuing play, Chris Andersen fouled Tim Duncan for two more free throw attempts. Timmy also missed both. That wasted opportunity, ladies and gentleman, is the difference between being up 2-0 in the NBA Finals and now needing a victory in Miami in order to win the series. Despite the missed foul shots, Timmy was once again the player of the game putting up 18 points, 15 rebounds and tying Magic Johnson for the most double-doubles in NBA playoff history during the loss.

As heartbreaking of a defeat as last night's ball game was, I'm extremely confident that it was an anomaly rather than what is to be expected as we move further into this series. LeBron James played about as well as you could ask him to play and it still took a Spurs meltdown in the fourth quarter for Miami to secure the victory. Granted, there will be a smaller margin for error once we get back to the circus-like atmosphere of American Airlines Arena in Miami (and all of its pyrotechnic glory) but the Spurs are equipped for the challenge. If we figure out a way to make LeBron work a little bit harder to manufacture the Heat's offense and if we get back to our patented ball movement and rely on our deeper bench, we will put ourselves in a position to bounce right back from last night's disappointment. One man can always win a basketball game against any opponent, but the 2014 San Antonio Spurs are too good to be beaten in a series by any one player; even one as gifted as LeBron James. If the Heat offense continues to be as reliant on James as it was last night, the odds are that Miami will prove to be the team with the smaller margin for error moving forward in this series. Yesterday, was a tough day at the office. The #BlackAndSilver need to forget about it and simply focus on what's next. After all, we have been invited to host a passing clinic tomorrow evening down in the city of blinding lights which is providing us with an excellent opportunity to move one step closer to writing these San Antonio Spurs into the history books as one of basketball's finest teams.

* * *

City of Blinding Lights

The city took something from me, it took something from all of us.
Upon arriving on our maiden voyage, we battled masterfully.
We were not distracted by the shimmer, we were not intimidated by the lights.
We saw those gaudy displays of opulence as hubristic,
The last gasps of an overextended empire, bumptiously unaware of its vulnerability.
We know that the fall is coming.

It will happen, it just didn't happen then.
We had advanced swiftly but as we moved into position to trample the throne,
The city, intoxicated in its excess, found favor with the gods.
Through the ostentatious worship of its false idols,
It seduced a fleeting moment of commotion that neutralized our resolve
And fire reigned down from the heavens like spears on our heads.
Blinded, we left wounded and empty handed.
But now we will return to the city once again, with our vision restored.
We will arrive on this voyage wiser, bonded by the fellowship of our noble scars.
We are still not distracted by the shimmer, we are still not intimidated by the lights.
After rebuilding the strength of our core, we are more resolute in our preparedness to persevere.
The city, more overextended than ever, relies now almost completely on the strength of its king.
We know that the fall is coming.

It will happen, and we know that is has to happen now.
We have advanced again swiftly and moved back in position to trample the throne.
With the grace of a thousand stars we will embrace our chance at redemption
And working together we will use our wit to overwhelm the the city's aggressive defenses.
While the spoils of a prolonged period of decadence are the desire of most challengers,
We return not in pursuit of the city's abundance of treasure.
Just to rip the crown jewel from the king's bare hands.

Written June 2014 in San Antonio, Texas

#GoSpursGo

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Featured Image Source: Sporting News

Headline Image Source: ClipArt ETC

Three Left

Revolution 1 - "You say you got a real solution, well you know, we'd all love to see..." the fan. "You ask me for a contribution, well you know, we're all doing what we can." It is true. The San Antonio Spurs had not paid the electric bill for the power used at the AT&T Center in almost a year. However, this is not a story about a sports franchise that is too broke to pay its bills. This is a story that is much more inspiring than that. This is a story about an NBA owner standing up on principle against one of the most sinister types of people that exists in our American democracy: the braggadocious, crass, smack talking Miami Heat fan. Let me explain. To put everything in context, I'll need to start with the NBA Finals Game 1 post game press conference; near the end of the story when San Antonio Spurs head coach and world renowned no-nonsense badass Gregg Popovich got involved by attempting to play peace-maker in a long running feud. Determined to help mediate a solution between Spurs Sports & Entertainment Chairman Peter Holt and CPS Energy President Doyle Beneby, late on Thursday night Coach Pop surmised, "Hopefully we can pay our bills." Rewind to the beginning and we discover that Holt has been suspicious of Beneby ever since the latter's arrival in San Antonio at CPS Energy in 2010. The reason for Holt's suspicion is that Beneby, who earned a masters degree at the University of Miami - School of Business in 1996, just so happens to be an unapologetic Miami Heat fan. Ever since The Decision, Beneby had been flaunting his love of LeBron James and the Heat to Holt every time that these two titans of industry crossed paths. To make matters worse, when Holt invited Beneby to a meeting to discuss San Antonio's energy future last summer (a few weeks after the 2013 NBA Finals), Beneby showed up for the meeting looking like this. When, during the meeting, Beneby made repeated references to the miracle working grace of Jesus Shuttlesworth's corner three point jumper, it was the final straw for Peter Holt. Since that day, he had vowed to never pay another dime to CPS Energy (regardless of how many bills he received for the power supplying the AT&T Center) until Beneby apologized.

Beneby never offered the desired apology so Holt began to rack up past due notices on his CPS Energy bill month after month. Even though CPS Energy has an outstanding reputation for giving its customers ample time to catch up on payments before cutting their power, Beneby had grown increasing leery of Holt's astronomical past due balance (which as of his June statement) had reached $3,274,895.65. The AT&T Center is a large building to power and Holt had not paid a bill since last July. Although Beneby would have been within his right to pull the plug on the AT&T Center power months ago, he decided to bide his time and wait for a great opportunity to do it when he could really embarrass Holt. On Thursday afternoon, Beneby knew he had just that type of opportunity and took action against Holt by cutting off the power supply for the AT&T Center's cooling system. Rather than cutting power to the entire building, Beneby thought he could stick it to Holt even more by just cutting the power supply to the air conditioning system so as to embarrass him on the biggest possible stage, the NBA Finals. By just cutting power to the AC supply, Beneby cunningly predicted that the NBA would not cancel the event (which they would obviously be forced to do if the entire building was without power). Cutting only the AC supply, therefore, allowed Beneby to pursue the objective of embarrassing Holt in front of a global audience. Ironically for the CPS Energy President, as it turns out, he did not think his sinister plan all the way through because the person most affected by the lack of air conditioning in the building on Thursday night was Beneby's beloved LeBron James. With James sidelined for the final four minutes due to heat exhaustion and muscle cramping, the San Antonio Spurs pulled away from the Miami Heat to take Game 1 of the NBA Finals 110-95. Having gotten the last laugh in the feud with Beneby (for now) and because he always makes it a point to heed the advice of Gregg Popovich (his most valued confidant), after the game Peter Holt found some spare change in his sofa cushions and paid his three and a quarter million dollar past due balance with CPS Energy. He also made a sizable donation to REAP. Now that his bill is current; CPS Energy has restored the electricity powering the air conditioning unit at the AT&T Center. theLeftAhead has reached out to Doyle Beneby for comment on his decision to cut AC power at the AT&T Center, but like any typical braggadocious, crass, smack talking Miami Heat fan, he was no where to be found and was not heard from after the loss. TMZ is reporting, however, that he has been spotted outside of LeBron James' hotel room apologizing profusely and offering James a CPS Energy tote bag along with flowers and candy as an apology for his blunder. 

* * *

All kidding aside, Game 1 of the 2014 NBA Finals produced an amazing story about heat for the basketball public to digest. Unfortunately, it is not the story about heat that is currently dominating the news. If you love basketball and haven't been living under a rock these past couple of days, you are already well aware that Game 1 is being dubbed The Cramp Game and most of the analyses in its aftermath is being focused on LeBron James. Is it unfortunate that the air conditioning was broken and that the temperature in the building reached 90 degrees during the game? Yes, it is unfortunate. But what is getting lost in all of the hysteria surrounding the incident that made #LeBronning go viral Thursday night is who the real victims were of the unfortunate conditions. The players surely weren't the real victims. They all played in the same conditions therefore the heat was not unfortunate for either team. The lack of air conditioning did not give one team an advantage over the other. As many of the players noted during postgame interviews, if you want to make it all the way to the NBA then at some point during your basketball development you are probably going to have to learn to play the game in heat. The lack of AC in the building did not cause LeBron's body to shut down. It is something in his genetic makeup that predisposes him to this recurring problem that is to blame for him being the only player in the game that was not able to finish. Sure, you could argue that San Antonio benefited indirectly from the heat in the building because we are a deeper team than Miami. But our depth in the series is an advantage that we have regardless of the playing conditions. Also, winning an NBA Championship is supposed to be hard and requires having the ability to overcome adversity in the NBA Finals (however it presents itself). Miami has proven to have that ability for the past two seasons in a row (they lost Game 1 of the Finals both times and came back to win the series). Game 1 is just one game. They are more than capable of overcoming adversity and a 0-1 series deficit again. No one should be feeling sorry for LeBron James and the Miami Heat. Having key players affected by injuries and ailments is part of basketball. The lack of air conditioning in the building was not unfortunate for the Miami Heat. On this particular night, they just got beat.

The people that the lack of AC was actually unfortunate for were the Spurs fans attending the game at the AT&T Center. NBA Finals tickets are obnoxiously expensive and many basketball fans dream of the opportunity to attend an NBA Finals game. For some die-hard fans of modest means this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I know that I enjoyed every second of the NBA Finals game that I attended (Game 1 of the 2003 NBA Finals) because I knew that I might never get a chance to have that experience again. The uncomfortable temperature in the building was unfortunate for Spurs fans, especially the ones who were fulfilling a dream to attend their first and possibly only NBA Finals game, because they had to spend what should have been a magical evening in prolonged discomfort. These fans in particular, who had been waiting a lifetime for this opportunity, are the unfortunate victims of the malfunctioning AT&T Center air conditioning system. I contemplated purchasing tickets for Game 1 when they went on sale on Tuesday, but decided against spending the money. In retrospect, I'm glad that I watched the happenings at the AT&T Center from the comfort of my temperature controlled living room.

But, of course, the media has spent the past couple of days fixated on how the heat affected the Heat. This is disappointing because they are depriving themselves and their audience of an opportunity to celebrate an actual amazing story about heat in Game 1 of the 2014 NBA Finals. What the media should be covering is he hottest thing that was in the building on Thursday night: the fourth quarter offensive attack of the San Antonio Spurs. Over the course of the final quarter of play in Game 1, the San Antonio Spurs took a positive step towards Revolution 1: the art of teamwork perfected. The Spurs put on a masterful performance in the fourth, outscoring the Heat 37-16 in the period while overcoming a four point deficit entering the final frame. San Antonio overpowered Miami with our ball movement and precision shooting to blitz the Heat with 14-16 from the field in the period and an astounding 12 of the made baskets coming off of an assist. When it was all said and done, we had blown open the four point deficit that we were facing with six minutes left in the game into another comfortable 15 point home victory. How did this happen? It seems that Miami has a short memory because for some reason they forgot that Danny Green loves animals and Danny Green gets buckets. In the course of three minutes of play, Danny turned a terrible performance through the first three quarters and a half quarter around by erupting for 11 points off of three triples and one vicious dunk. As spectacular as Danny's performance was in the final six minutes, it was not enough to put him into the running for player of the game honors. Here are some other Spurs players lines from Game 1 of the 2014 NBA Finals: Boris Diaw (2 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists), Tiago Splitter (14 points, 4 rebounds), Tony Parker (19 points, 8 assists), and Manu Ginobili (16 points, 11 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, and 1 block). This was a complete team effort with each of these players worthy of player of the game honors but none of them were able to quite outshine the indelible Tim Duncan, aka Time's Father. Timmy led the Spurs with 21 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 assists and he is now just one double double away from tying Magic Johnson for the most in NBA playoff history. At age 38, his performance the other night was simply stated: spectacular.

While San Antonio had a vintage performance in Game 1 that seemed reminiscent of the old Boston Celtics teams, in both the way we shared the basketball and also in that playing a game without the air conditioning was a notorious Red Auerbach trick (enter conspiracy theorists stage left), we cannot let our guard down for even a split second. Miami is the two-time defending World Champions and, as stated earlier, they have lost Game 1 of the NBA Finals two years in a row and stormed back to win the series. Last year, we were in an even greater position than we are now after the first game considering that we stole that one on the road. We all know how that series turned out for us. The good news is that there is plenty for us to concentrate on in order to keep our focus. In fact, there is one blatant aspect of our Game 1 performance that we must improve upon drastically in order for us to have any hope of winning Game 2. We committed 22 turnovers in Game 1 which is like playing with a hornets nest against the Miami Heat; we were just asking to be stung. San Antonio is extremely fortunate that Miami was unable to capitalize on our turnovers (most of which occurred in the first three quarters) to blow us out of our own gym before our fourth quarter blitz was even able to develop. If we give LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and company another crack at that many turnovers, they will certainly make us pay. On each and every possession of the game tomorrow night, if I were a Spurs player, I would be looking left, looking right, and starin' through my rear view before attempting each and every pass. I know that the ball has got to zip around the perimeter in order to capitalize on our precision offensive attack, but protecting the basketball against the Miami Heat is just as important. Their defense is built upon creating turnovers. If we do not turn the ball over, it will be extremely difficult for them to beat us, especially at home. We are the superior half court defensive team, we are the superior offensive team, and we are the deeper team. If the #BlackAndSilver protect the basketball tomorrow night like it is our essence then we can take another step towards Revolution 1: the art of teamwork perfected and our offense will remain the hottest thing in the AT&T Center.

#GoSpursGo

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Featured Image Source: Rolling Stone

Headline Image Source: SA Express-News

*The Peter Holt and Doyle Beneby depicted in this blog post are fictional.

Four Left

Here Now - It was a devastating way to lose the NBA Finals. When you're up three games to two and you have a lead on the road in the last minute of the fourth quarter of Game 6, you have the trophy so close within reach that you can almost scape a fingernail on it. Even though no lead is ever safe in the NBA, the reason why you start sensing that you're closing in on the title is because if you're good enough to be in that position in the first place, it means that you're also good enough to make the right decisions, execute effectively, protect the lead, and closeout the game. By the time that you've gotten around to having a lead in the last minute of Game 6 of the NBA Finals, you've not only been through all of the possible late game scenarios over the course of a hundred game season, but you've established a proven track record that you can make the plays necessary to finish. In other words, a team that is good enough to make the NBA Finals is good enough to protect a lead during the last minute of a ball game nine times out of ten; perhaps even ninety five times out of a hundred. That is why it is so devastating when this happens. The question is, when you are that close and everything caves in around you, how do you respond? Do you grab on to a helping hand and live to fight another day or does your proximity to realizing your dream allow you to become so overcome with the moment that you plummet into the abyss?

Most teams would plummet into the abyss. You would more than likely be resigned to show up and get blown out in Game 7 after losing Game 6 of the NBA Finals on the road in devastating fashion. It is human nature if you are a player on a team in that situation to hang your head and feel sorry for yourself after squandering a golden opportunity to achieve your goal. Once that focus is broken and replaced by regret, it is an astronomical challenge to have the fortitude to prepare properly to turn around and bring the same energy and execution to match a team that is full of new life after enjoying some clutch plays but also a few breaks and perhaps a little luck to narrowly escape elimination. You see, the problem in this particular scenario is that your opponent has also proven over the course of a hundred game season to be good enough to be playing in the NBA Finals and now they have proven that they are also good enough to find life in the face of imminent death. All losses being equal and as the road team, you are probably better off in your pursuit of the ultimate goal of winning the title if you get blown out in Game 6 than you are losing in heartbreaking fashion when you should have won. You can chalk up a blowout defeat on the road to just having a bad night and then try to come back with better focus and energy in Game 7. If, however, you blow the lead in the last minute of Game 6, all you have is "what ifs" torturing and distracting you like an uninterrupted nightmare during the days leading up to Game 7. You've let your best opportunity slip through your fingers and the worst part is that your opponent also knows this. Considering that this Finals series is being played in the (now defunct) 2-3-2 format, regardless of whether the circumstances that led to your Game 6 demise were you choking or your opponent coming through in the clutch (or a combination of both), that other team is patiently sitting at home counting their blessings, enjoying life, and getting ready to wipe the floor with you in Game 7. As a team that is carrying all of the baggage of just having blown your shot to close out the NBA Finals on the road in Game 6, you are expected by everyone to "fold like a cheap hooker who got hit in the stomach by a fat guy with sores on his face" in Game 7.

Indeed, most teams facing those circumstances would be toast. The 1988 Detroit Pistons, however, were a team that refused to fold after coughing up Game 6 of the NBA Finals to the Los Angeles Lakers 103-102 at the Great Western Forum in LA. Game 6 was not only a devastating loss for the Pistons but it was one of the most heartbreaking beats in modern professional sports. Detroit led Los Angeles 3-2 in the series and 102 to 99 in the final minute of the game before Byron Scott scored with 45 seconds left to cut the Piston lead to two. On the ensuing possession, Isiah Thomas missed a a baseline jumper which set up one of the most infamous plays in NBA Finals history. With 14 seconds left in the game and Detroit still leading by one, Bill Laimbeer was guarding Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as he attempted his signature skyhook shot. Kareem missed and Dennis Rodman was in position to collect the rebound and more than likely the Pistons' first championship trophy. The problem was that one of the officials had the audacity to call a foul on the shot attempt. There was minimal contact on the play (especially by late 80's standards) and this series altering call has gone down in infamy in Detroit lore as the "phantom foul." Kareem sunk both free throws to give LA the lead. On the Pistons next possession, Joe Dumars missed badly on a desperate attempt. Byron Scott collected the rebound and was fouled immediately. Although he missed both free throws, the Pistons were out of timeouts and were forced to attempt a half court shot at the buzzer.

After being so close to winning the title just to have the game taken away by a ridiculous foul call, it was hard to imagine that Detroit would be able to regroup and compete in Game 7. Everyone assumed that the Pistons would get slaughtered by Magic Johnson and the "Showtime" Lakers. Against all odds and to almost everyone's surprise, this did not happen. It turned out that the 1988 Detroit Pistons were a special basketball team. Somehow, they found the mental strength and inner fortitude to compete in Game 7 in Los Angeles until the bitter end. Down four points with six seconds left, Bill Laimbeer drained a 28 foot three pointer to cut the Laker lead to one point. Detroit went for the steal which allowed LA to advance the ball to A.C. Green who was wide open for a layup with two seconds left. As Laimbeer looked to inbound the ball so the Pistons could attempt a game tying three pointer, it became quickly apparent that the Pistons not only faced the five Laker players in the game on their final attempt but also the defense of the Laker bench as well as several dozen Lakers fans who were already storming the court. It seems mind-boggling today, but the referees made no attempt to clear the court and allow Detroit a fair opportunity to tie the game. Laimbeer, given no other option, threw the ball to the front court to Isaiah Thomas who was promptly knocked down by Magic Johnson. Shockingly, no foul was called and the game ended. Lakers 108 - Pistons 105. 

* * *

After surrendering a lead in the last minute of the fourth quarter and eventually losing Game 6 of the NBA Finals on the road, it was hard to imagine that San Antonio would be able to regroup and compete in Game 7. Everyone assumed that the Spurs would get slaughtered by LeBron James and "The Heatles." Against all odds and to almost everyone's surprise, this did not happen. It turned out that the 2013 San Antonio Spurs were a special basketball team. Somehow they found the mental strength and inner fortitude to compete in Game 7 in Miami until the bitter end. Kawhi Leonard hit a three point shot with just over one minute left in the game to cut a five point Heat lead to two, 90-88. After Shane Battier missed a three point attempt, Manu Ginobili secured the rebound with exactly one minute left on the clock and the Spurs advanced the ball with an opportunity to tie or take the lead. San Antonio worked the ball in to Tim Duncan in the post. Noticing that he had the smaller Battier defending him, Timmy drove immediately towards the middle of the paint to attempt a point blank jump hook; a shot that he had made hundreds if not thousands of times before in his career. He shot it long off of the back rim but immediately responded by attempting to tip it back up and in (something he has also done hundreds of times in his career). The tip attempt failed and Chris Bosh secured the rebound. With 28 seconds left in the game and clinging to a two point lead, LeBron James drained a clutch 17 foot jump shot to put Miami up four. After Manu Ginboli missed a three pointer on the ensuing possession, the Heat closed out the game by hitting three out of four free throws. Heat 95 - Spurs 88.

The thing about special basketball teams who have the fortitude to compete on the road in Game 7 of the NBA Finals after being less than a minute away from winning a championship in Game 6 is that they have a demonstrated ability to regroup. Sometimes 48 hours just isn't quite enough time to come all the way back from something so heartbreaking... but a year certainly is. After experiencing that and still having the fortitude to comeback and claim the best regular season record in the NBA the next season (1988-89 Detroit Pistons: league best record of 63-19, 2013-14 San Antonio Spurs: league best record 62-20), no amount of playoff adversity can seem to derail you from your quest for redemption. Last Saturday night, the San Antonio Spurs trotted out for the second half of Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals in Chesapeake Energy Arena (a building in which we had lost 9 straight times) trailing by 7 and with Cory Joseph in the game at the point guard position. It became quickly apparent that Tony Parker, our leading scorer, was out of the game due to injury. The TNT broadcasting team subsequently reported that Tony would not return. Despite this unfortunate turn of events, San Antonio (with Cory as our floor general) put together one of our most dominant quarters of the postseason. The Spurs outscored the Oklahoma City Thunder 37-20 in the period by picking the OKC defense apart with the type of precision ball movement that has been the team's trademark this season. Up ten points on the road with an opportunity to close out the Thunder heading into the fourth quarter, it seemed inevitable that league MVP Kevin Durant and his sidekick Russell Westbrook would make a run to save their season. Sure enough, they did exactly that. Oklahoma City kept chipping away at our lead throughout the fourth quarter and finally, with 32 seconds left in the period, Durant made a driving layup to give the Thunder a 99-97 lead. A year is a long time to think about redemption. On the ensuing possession, Manu Ginobili (who had missed a crucial three pointer in the last minute of Game 7 of last year's NBA Finals) came free off of a Tim Duncan pick and just buried the go-ahead three point dagger with 27 seconds left. Even still, after Kevin Durant turned the ball over and Manu split a pair of free throws, Russell Westbrook re-tied the game 101-101 by making a pair of free throws. Manu got a clean look at the buzzer to win the game, but back rimmed it.The two Western Conference heavy weights traded punches for most of the overtime period until Tim Duncan found himself in the low post with a smaller defender on him clinging to a one point lead (108-107) with less than 30 seconds left in the overtime period. A year is a long time to think about redemption. Timmy (who had missed his jump hook in the last minute of Game 7 of last year's NBA Finals with the smaller Shane Battier on him) noticing he had the much smaller Reggie Jackson on him turned to his left into a leaning jump hook with Russell Westbrook closing frantically to double team and rattled it home to earn player of the game honors. Trailing by three, Kevin Durant missed a good look at a three pointer to re-tie the game and Boris Diaw (who had a monster night with 26 points) made two out of four free throws down the stretch to secure the victory and send the #BlackAndSilver back to the NBA Finals. Spurs 112 - Thunder 107. A year is a long time to think about redemption.

We Here Now

* * *

I was hanging out in the studio the weekend that Brian and Eric recorded this song in 2005. I remember that the three of us, along with our friend Matt, went to a Spurs game that Saturday night to break up the grind of a marathon recording session. I couldn't even tell you anymore who we played on that particular night, I just know that ever since then I have associated this song with Spurs playoff runs and I guess that is the reason. After Saturday night's epic closeout victory, I blasted this song on my living room stereo and basked at what the Spurs had just accomplished while also thinking about my best friend. Indeed, we are here now with the opportunity to secure ultimate redemption for our devastating Game 6 defeat to the Miami Heat in last year's NBA Finals. This is the first rematch in the Finals since Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls defeated Karl Malone's Utah Jazz in both 1997 and 1998. The time before that? That was 25 years ago in 1989 when the Detroit Pistons were able to regroup and overcome any and all playoff adversity on their quest for redemption to set up their opportunity for a rematch with the Los Angeles Lakers. In Game 7 of last year's Finals, I witnessed the same heart in the San Antonio Spurs that I remember witnessing from the 1988 Detroit Pistons in their Game 7 against the Lakers. The '88 Pistons weren't on my mind, necessarily, when I sent out my tweet immediately following San Antonio coming up just short in Game 7 last year but the rare inner fortitude that both team's shared was and that was what gave me the confidence a bold prediction and the faith that we would be exactly where we are tonight; on the eve of our opportunity to finish off some overdue business. A year is a long time to think about redemption. Tomorrow night, the San Antonio Spurs will embark on revolution 1: the art of teamwork perfected. There is something cyclical about this beautiful game that we call basketball. I've had this feeling for a while now that the 1988-1989 Detroit Pistons and the 2013-2014 San Antonio Spurs are kindred spirits. How did the '89 Pistons fare in reaching their ultimate goal of redemption? They swept the Los Angeles Lakers out of the 1989 NBA Finals four games to zero. I'm just saying.

#GoSpursGo

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Headline Image Source: ESPN

Five Left

C.R.E.A.M. - Championships rule everything around me, C.R.E.A.M., get the trophy. Baller, baller skill y'all. For the seventh consecutive home playoff game, the San Antonio Spurs blew out our opponent last night defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder 117-89 at the AT&T Center to take a 3-2 lead in the 2014 Western Conference Finals. In a surprising tactical adjustment, Coach Pop started Matt Bonner instead of Tiago Splitter in order to stretch the court and pull Serge Ibaka away from the basket. While Bonner struggled from the field (0-4 for the game), the adjustment seemed to make a difference as Serge Ibaka's defensive presence was less disruptive (2 blocks in 27 minutes) and didn't lead to back-breaking Oklahoma City fast breaks. Also, Bonner's defense seemed to have an effect on Ibaka's shot, as well (Ibaka missed his first 5 shots with Bonner guarding him and finished the game 3-10). After a tense first quarter (the game was tied 32-32 after one) in which OKC came out looking poised to repeat Game 5 of the 2012 WCF and seemed to be carrying a great deal of confidence from having the Ibaka "Serge" momentum in the series, the Spurs calmly and systematically started imposing our will in the second quarter by moving the ball on offense and hustling on defense to build a 10 point half time lead. The flood gates opened in the second half as San Antonio put together a dominant performance on both sides of the basketball outscoring Oklahoma City 52-34 in the third and fourth quarter combined. The Spurs dominated every facet of the game last night out-rebounding OKC 48-35 and out-shooting them 51.3 percent to 43.2 percent. We more than doubled them up from behind the arc, as well, going 13-26 (50%) from downtown to their 6-24 (25%). Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were held to a manageable combined total of 46 points.

While the Spurs got big-time contributions across-the-board, Manu Ginobili's stood out as he had a memorable throwback performance scoring 19 points in 21 minutes on 7-9 shooting (3-4 from distance) with 6 assists and 4 rebounds. He even, albeit accidentally, bitch slapped the 2014 NBA MVP while going for a steal late in the third quarter. Not to be outdone in the "Throwback Thursday" department, Tim Duncan snatched player of the game honors away from Manu because he also had a vintage performance scoring 22 points on 8-13 shooting while hauling in 12 rebounds and adding one of the most emphatic blocks in recent memory against the no longer in our heads (thanks Cory Joseph) Serge Ibaka. While there was most definitely palpable tension in the air throughout the city of San Antonio over the last couple of days after our disappointing performances in Oklahoma City earlier in this week, the Spurs answered the call at home once again to put Spurs fans minds at ease. Although the circumstances of coming home with the series tied 2-2, in and of themselves, didn't necessarily warrant the panic Spurs fans were experiencing, it was the demons of the 2012 Western Conference Finals that caused a "here we go again" overreaction from late Tuesday night until the tip-off of Game 5. But last night those demons were fully exorcised as the Spurs proved that the Oklahoma City Thunder are still miles away from competing at a level that would allow them to win the game that they need in San Antonio in order to advance to the NBA Finals.

Now that Serge Ibaka has come back down to earth from the Hakeem Olajuwon perch he had played on in Oklahoma City after returning from vacation (err...I mean injury), the Spurs must capitalize on this opportunity to end this series in Oklahoma City and punch our ticket to the 2014 NBA Finals. San Antonio has lost 9 games in a row to the Thunder in that building. We are too good of a basketball team to lose to any team 10 times in a row in any building. We are due for a victory in the Chesapeake Energy Arena. Tomorrow night, I want to see that "the Starburys taste like Starburys" incarcerating 2003 on the road at American West Arena in Phoenix 87-85 swagger. You know what I'm talking about, right? I'm talking about that 2003 dynasty crushing, "Shaq and Kobe as a tandem" derailing, "Zen Master heart attack" inducing on the road at Staples Center in Los Angeles 110-82 "step on the champs' throats" swag. I mean, I want to see that "Dirk and Nash 'best buds'" separating, "dust off Steve Kerr to twist three point daggers into Mark Cuban's heart" executing 2003 on the road at American Airlines Center in Dallas 90-78 precision chutzpah. Am I making myself clear? I'm looking to see that "Jesus Shuttlesworth was only good enough to win rings as a third or fourth wheel" proving, "come and steal the SuperSonics and Kevin Durant away from Seattle" opportunity creating, "how did I not remember that Antonio Daniels played for the Sonics that year" memory questioning 2005 on the road at KeyArena in Seattle 98-96 swagalicious boisterousness. I know you're digging where I'm going with this, right? I know you know what I'm talking about right here. The San Antonio Spurs have gone on the road in Game 6 of a best of seven series four times and closed out an opponent en route to the NBA Championship. It only seems fitting that we should do it for the fifth time in pursuit of our fifth ring. We have finally put the "Serge Ibaka is in our heads" nonsense to rest (not only did we put it to rest, but we crammed so much Nyquil down its throat that it is practically in a coma) and we are overdue for a W in Oklahoma City. If the #BlackAndSilver play our game tomorrow evening in Chesapeake Energy Arena, no amount of athleticism on the other side of the ball can beat us. We are the better team. We here now. Let's get this done.

#GoSpursGo

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Featured Image Source: Ruth Gwily Illustrations

Headline Image Source: Concord Monitor